IT'S A START:

Health Savings Accounts: Early Estimates Of National Take-Up (Roger Feldman, Stephen T. Parente, Jean Abraham, Jon B. Christianson and Ruth Taylor, Health Affairs)

The 2003 Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act (MMA) approved tax-advantaged health savings accounts (HSAs) for certain high-deductible health insurance plans. We predict that MMA could lead to approximately 3.2 million HSA contracts among Americans ages 19–64 who are not students, not enrolled in public health insurance plans, and not eligible for group coverage as a dependent. We simulate the effect of several additional tax subsidies for HSAs. We predict that the Bush administration’s refundable tax-credit proposal would double HSA take-up and reduce the number of uninsured people by 2.9 million, at an annual cost of $8.1 billion.

You'd have to hit a conservative with a baseball bat to get him to stop whining long enough to realize Medicare reform brought about this revolutionary step.

Posted by Orrin Judd at November 16, 2005 11:51 AM