Health Savings Accounts: Consumer Directed Care

Throughout medical care's long history society has witnessed a variety of provider to patient relationships. More often than none the patient in the past has been the submissive partner in the provider-patient relationship. Therefore the provider has been deemed the one with the power of influence and choice. Although medical treatment has been an intricate part of society's needs since the beginning of time it is only in recent decades that the power in the provider-patient relationship has changed. The patient has now become the consumer and an equally dominate figure in the provider-patient relationship. Patients armed with healthcare knowledge accompanied with the rising cost of healthcare have helped the healthcare system become a multi-billion dollar business and a system of "consumer driven healthcare." One major movement in the efforts to contain costs is to put the responsibility of the costs in the hands of the consumer or the patient. It can be interpreted as the solution to moral hazard (where the behavior of patients may differ when the cost appears to lay upon the insurance company or whatever third party payer is involved). This shift in responsibility of care has brought about various programs for patients seeking medical care and the most recent and largest program has been given the title Health Savings Account. Looking at what HSA's are, how they emerged in a consumer driven health care system, some of the reasons it was opposed, and the best reasons to advocate it one can truly understand how to benefit from HSA's and how it will be quintessential to paying for and being responsible for healthcare in the future.