Health Insurance Onus on Consumers

For many workers fall brings with it open-enrollment season for health insurance coverage.

This year, as in years past, lots of employees will be asked to contribute more to their health-care costs, through increased premiums, surcharges or higher deductibles on items ranging from doctors' visits to prescription drugs.

The good news is that the percentage increase in health-care costs, which for the first time in four years fell into the high single-digits last year, ebbed again this year, rising 7.7 percent, about half the increase seen three years ago.

Still, employers and employees are having to make stark choices. Some businesses are discontinuing health insurance coverage. In the last year, the share of people covered by employer-provided insurance fell by 4.1 percent, or more than 3 million Americans, according to analysis by the Economic Policy Institute.

One way smaller businesses are hanging on to health coverage or able to offer any health plan at all is through consumer-directed health plans (CDHPs), also known as high-deductible health plans.

Health-savings accounts, go hand-in-hand with CDHPs. Unlike flexible-spending accounts, which allow workers to contribute money for health-related expenses through payroll deduction, HSAs allow users to roll over contributions year-to-year and are portable.