HSA Realism

John Hood has a column today on Health Savings Accounts that cites Michael Cannon’s recent paper on the topic. As Hood notes,

You can learn more about some of the issues involved – fairness to the health and sick, tax benefits for the wealthy and poor, adverse selection and the stability of health‐​insurance pools – by reading an excellent paper out last month from the Cato Institute. Michael Cannon, director of health policy studies at the libertarian think tank, has produced one of the better policy studies I’ve read on any subject in a long time. It takes the concerns of critics seriously – studying carefully and then rejecting some, studying and agreeing with others, and proposing changes that will make consumer‐​driven health care make more sense for more Americans over time.

Health Savings Accounts are one of the most important health care innovations of recent history, with the potential to significantly increase consumer involvement in health care decision‐​making. But they are not a silver bullet. The Left has long had a “utopian complex,” believing that some simple legislative change can solve this or that complex problem. Lately, too many conservatives have fallen in to that trap as well. Cannon’s paper is an important contribution to the debate that should be read by both supporters and opponents of consumer‐​driven health care reform.