• E-mail
• Print
• RSS

GAO report: HSAs drawing mostly wealthy taxpayers

Quality Improvement Monitor, May 2, 2008

A new report says the number of people enrolled in health savings accounts (HSA) has topped the 6 million mark, nearly double the projections made two years ago, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

A separate report from the Government Accountability Office, however, criticized HSAs, noting taxpayers with consumer-directed health plans had an adjusted gross income averaging about $139,000 in 2005, versus $57,000 for all other filers, the paper said.

That means the wealthy are using the accounts as a tax shelter instead of as a way to afford insurance, instead of as a way to help them afford health insurance, Democratic Reps. Pete Stark and Henry Waxman, both from California, told the paper.

But Karen Ignagni, president and CEO of the trade group America's Health Insurance Plans, said the GAO report showed that the typical enrollee deposited $2,100 in an HSA in 2005 and withdrew $1,000. Those figures, she told the paper, hardly suggest that HSAs are a tax shelter for the wealthy.

For more information, click here.

• E-mail to a Colleague
• Print
• RSS
• Archive