The percentage of employers and workers making contributions to health savings accounts (HSAs) fell in 2014. That’s according to new research from the Washington, D.C.–based Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI). The organization posted a news release about the research to its website on March 26. EBRI is a private, nonprofit research institute that […]
The percentage of employers and workers making contributions to health savings accounts (HSAs) fell in 2014.
That’s according to new research from the Washington, D.C.–based Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI). The organization posted a news release about the research to its website on March 26.
EBRI is a private, nonprofit research institute that focuses on health, savings, retirement, and economic-security issues.
HSAs are an element of so-called “consumer-driven” health plans (CDHPs). CDHPs involve high deductibles and tax-deferred savings or spending accounts that workers and their families can use to pay their out-of-pocket health-care expenses.
EBRI notes that about 15 percent of the population was enrolled in a CDHP in 2014, representing about 26 million individuals with private insurance.
Among the 15 percent of people enrolled in a CDHP, 57 percent (or 9.3 million) had a health-reimbursement account (HRA) or had opened an HSA, while 43 percent were enrolled in an HSA-eligible health plan but had not opened an HSA.
Employer contributions
The new EBRI analysis indicates that two in three workers (67 percent) with an HRA or HSA reported that their employers contributed to the account in 2014, down from 71 percent in 2013.
The percentage of workers with an HRA or HSA-eligible health plan whose employers contributed to the account had steadily increased between 2009 and 2013, according to the EBRI.
Worker contributions
Individuals’ contributions to HSAs had been growing until 2011, but have declined since then, EBRI found.
Between 2006 and 2011, the percentage of individuals with employee-only coverage contributing nothing to an HSA decreased from 28 percent to 11 percent.
At the same time, the percentage contributing $1,500 or more increased from 21 percent in 2006 to 44 percent in 2011.
More recently, between 2011 and 2014, the percentage of individuals reporting that they contributed nothing to their HSA increased from 11 percent to 23 percent, and the percentage reporting that they contributed $1,500 or more fell from 44 percent to 30 percent.
Among those with individual coverage and employer contributions, the percentage with contributions between $200 and $999 decreased, while contributions of $1,000 or more increased in 2014.
Both lower- and higher-income individuals slightly lowered their contributions in 2014, and lower-income individuals were less likely to contribute anything than higher-income individuals, the EBRI analysis found.
EBRI bases the findings on the results of the 2008–2014 EBRI/Greenwald & Associates Consumer Engagement in Health Care Survey and the 2006 and 2007 EBRI/Commonwealth Fund Consumerism in Health Care Survey, the nonprofit said.
Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com