Those contributions are limited to the amount of the deductible, with maximums of $2,700 for individuals and $5,450 for families. Ignagni said the high-deductible policies would become more attractive if the tax breaks for the accounts were expanded.
Grace-Marie Turner, president of the Galen Institute, a health and tax policy center in Alexandria, Va., found the incidence of high-deductible insurance policies impressive. "They're new," said Turner, whose organization backs increased use of the accounts. "It takes people a while to get used to them."
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Tuesday February 14, 2006 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 39 words Type of Material: Correction
State of the Union -- In a Jan. 29 Washington Outlook column on President Bush's address, and in previous columns, about 46 million Americans were said to lack health insurance. That figure included noncitizens living in the United States.
Although Ignagni could not say how many of the 3 million had opened and contributed to the tax-favored accounts, other research suggests that it is a small percentage.
An October survey of insured people by the Employee Benefit Research Institute and the Commonwealth Fund found that 1 in 10 people with private insurance had high-deductible plans; of them, 1 in 10 had set up either health savings accounts or health reimbursement accounts, to which only employers may contribute.
The survey also found that those with high-deductible plans were less satisfied with their insurance than those with comprehensive plans and were more likely to delay or avoid healthcare because of costs. But it found that enrollees in high-deductible plans were more aware of healthcare costs than those with comprehensive coverage.
