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HSAs, tort reform top health agenda

Some physicians like the emphasis on personal responsibility, but others worry unknowledgeable patients might skip care and that educating them would be time-consuming.

By David Glendinning, amednews staff. Feb. 20, 2006.

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Washington -- In his bid to promote more efficient spending of health care dollars, President Bush is trying to get patients to have more skin in the game.

The White House released a proposed fiscal year 2007 budget this month that would commit billions more dollars toward persuading people to embrace health savings accounts over more traditional types of insurance.

By opting to purchase high-deductible plans coupled with personal HSAs, patients would be encouraged to use medical services more judiciously, the Bush administration said.

The concept of encouraging patient responsibility and empowerment through such consumer-directed care emerged as a major theme of this year's White House health agenda. "As people spend more money over which they have discretion, they're going to be more concerned about spending it wisely," said Allan Hubbard, director of the White House's National Economic Council.

For this reason, the American Medical Association approved of the HSA expansion Bush proposed in his Jan. 31 state of the union address.

"Consumer-driven health care encourages patients to take a greater interest in their health care and how they spend their health care dollars by putting patients in the driver's seat," AMA President J. Edward Hill, MD, said after the speech.

"The AMA believes that health savings accounts empower patients to have greater control over their health care decision-making and are an important choice in the health insurance mix."