So If You Are Reading About Health Savings Accounts on Thanksgiving…

….Wow, more power to you.  But I hope if you ate a big meal today already, you then went out and took a long walk, jog or somehow got a bit of exercise as that would likely have been more productive that having your head glued to the computer.  If you have been diligently reading about Health Savings Accounts, then I’d suggest you take a break and go get some fresh air.  It will clear your head for sure.  

If you have good health and good health insurance, you are truly blessed and have another good reason to be giving thanks.  If you do not have health insurance and are reading this, then you are pretty motivated and likely on your way to finding a workable solution.  If you do not have insurance and are in poor health, then hopefully you are doing all you can to improve your health.   

HSAs are not a panacea for healthcare.  I’ve got one, I write about them nearly every day, and I think they are a terrific tool to help protecte individuals and families from total financial wipeout.  But there are a lot of issues in the healthcare marketplace that make them challenging for some folks.  Some of these include, underwriting practices of insurance companies, the lack of transparency in healthcare pricing, government rules related to HSA accounts, uninformed health practitioners, and others.

The above said, if you are still reading this, one thing I have noticed is that when organizations and individuals who do not support HDHPs, HSAs, and CDH, talk or write about them, they tend to portray those who do support HSAs (people like me) as some sort of zealots who pimp HSAs as the cure-all to all of our nation’s healthcare woes.  Total bunk.  I have not come across anyone yet who actually has said or believed HDHPs/HSAs are THE solution.

I believe that people are smart and with the right information and tools, they can, most of the time, take care of themselves.  Happy Thanksgiving.