Health Savings Accounts And The Cost Of Staying Healthy

The costs of staying healthy are getting so out of hand these days that many people are unable to keep up with it. Insurance premiums keep skyrocketing; employers are reducing benefits or eliminating coverage outright, and many medical services that could prove beneficial for health are not even covered at all.

So what can we do? How do we deal with this healthcare crisis we all find ourselves in? What is the missing piece? Simple: Just don’t get sick in the first place! Seems like a no brainer. But not so easy you say. The good news, however, is that help is on the way. A Health Savings Account may just be what the doctor ordered.

Remaining healthy in today’s world is a big challenge. We live in a world of fast food on every corner, noxious chemicals in all our consumer products, environmental pollutants destroying our water, air and soil, as we are exposed to a multitude of toxic wastes. No wonder we are sick!

Almost every day we hear of someone who got sick: a relative, friend or a loved one perhaps. It would also be safe to say that we probably know somebody personally who has cancer, heart disease, is obese, has irritable bowel syndrome or is depressed. You name the disease, we probably know someone who has it. That is merely an indication of how unhealthy we really are as a society.

Besides the obvious reasons, as stated above, of why Americans are generally so unhealthy, our attention must be directed to an industry that caters to this segment of the population, the insurance industry itself, which in most cases focuses on “illness”.

As harsh as that sounds, when you really think about it, our current health insurance model is based primarily on treating illness rather than wellness. Insurance covers drugs, surgeries, hospital stays, diagnostic tests and a variety of other medical services. When you are sick your insurance kicks in and pays the bill. (thank goodness it does)

But how much of the insurance dollar is actually spent on wellness? How many insurance plans cover nutritional counseling, heavy metal detoxification, acupuncture, yoga, chelation therapy or other preventive modalities? Not many. Only a meager portion of insurance expenditures go into promoting wellness. Why is that so when wellness initiatives would save insurance companies millions of dollars in the long run? Putting money into staying healthy, while still providing benefits for the sick, would be a wise move for the insurance industry. Increasing wellness will reap great benefits and rewards for all.

So how can we be creative and find a type of insurance that combines the benefits for wellness and the coverage for illness? How can we begin to make inroads for creating a healthier society? How do we go from a society based on illness to one of wellness? What type of insurance can bring us the best of both worlds? The answer: Health Savings Accounts and other forms of Consumer Directed Health Plan options.

You probably have heard of Health Savings Accounts or HSAs. Their time has come. It is a hot topic in the upcoming 2008 presidential election. More and more employers are offering this option to their employees. Families and individuals are increasingly dropping their traditional coverage for less expensive, more flexible HSAs. It makes sense!

A Health Savings Account incorporates a traditional high deductible major medical plan and a tax deferred health savings account, which acts like a medical IRA. You have coverage for illness with the major medical plan as you use the funds accumulated in your savings account to pay for services that are normally not covered by traditional insurance for staying healthy. These include services like dental, orthodontics, chiropractic, acupuncture, vision and much more.

HSAs put you in control over where you spend your health care dollars. Premium expenses that normally go to part of your sickness insurance can now be placed into your medical savings account, to cover wellness initiatives. All the while you are building up your medical IRA which saves money in taxes, is portable and rolls over from year to year.

Health Savings Accounts represent the future of healthcare. Now there is finally a way to effectively counteract the traditional insurance model and begin to take back responsibility for your own health. Now that is a smart thing to do! n
Dr. Vincent DiLorenzo, President of T-Horizons, LLC, is a holistic dentist who specializes in Consumer Driven Health Care Solutions for families, individuals and employers by encouraging healthy lifestyles to lower healthcare costs at home and the workplace. Learn more at => www.t-horizons.com