Part of the "What I Learned Reading EmployersWeb.com the Magazine" series: Jennifer Benz's latest
article for EmployersWeb.com is short and to the point. That point is that even if you have a traditional health care plan, you can still practice health care consumerism by reinforcing your existing plan with an FSA. Benz claims that 91 percent of employers offering reimbursement accounts offer FSAs, but only 20 percent of employees have signed up for one. She believes the problem is education. People see adding to their existing health plan an entirely different kind of plan as a hassle and sometimes think it may actually cost them more. Employee education is still lagging despite how many employers offer CDHPs and how long they've been around.
I agree with Ms. Benz 100 percent. A person should (or at least should be able to) run their health care plan more like a bank account and less like a government bureaucracy, but the sad fact is that this is not the case. Instead, insurance companies tell us to pay premiums and then give us a bunch of rules and exceptions. Often, before we can even think about seeing a doctor, we have to call them first to see if we can and how much it will cost us. You can actually pay more just because you went to the wrong doctor. I never thought I'd say this, but getting medical care when you're sick or hurt makes finding a good mechanic seem pleasant. By all means keep your health plan for catastrophic coverage and the like, but do yourself a favor and get an FSA to take care of the little stuff.