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Impact of health savings accounts on precautionary savings, demand for health insurance and prevention effort

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  • Steinorth, Petra

Abstract

The paper examines the influence of health savings accounts (HSAs) on optimal savings, insurance demand and prevention effort over the course of a lifetime. This paper adds to the literature by investigating HSAs as both a form of insurance and as saving vehicle in an expected utility framework. Assuming no regulatory constraints on the deductible, we show that individuals voluntarily choose a positive deductible and increase their savings with HSAs. If the government-imposed minimum deductible becomes too great, however, individuals may instead choose to remain in traditional insurance. We determine the effect of HSAs on prevention effort. We find that an increased tax subsidy may worsen moral hazard issues. Assuming partial risk aversion to be less than or equal to one, individuals will either invest less in the health preservation effort and more money in the HSA or vice versa. However, they will never increase both effort and savings simultaneously as was intended when HSAs were introduced.

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  • Steinorth, Petra, 2011. "Impact of health savings accounts on precautionary savings, demand for health insurance and prevention effort," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 458-465, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:30:y:2011:i:2:p:458-465
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    Cited by:

    1. Donatella Baiardi & Marco Magnani & Mario Menegatti, 2020. "The theory of precautionary saving: an overview of recent developments," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 18(2), pages 513-542, June.
    2. Padmaja Ayyagari & Daifeng He, 2017. "The Role of Medical Expenditure Risk in Portfolio Allocation Decisions," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(11), pages 1447-1458, November.
    3. Richard Peter & Sebastian Soika & Petra Steinorth, 2016. "Health Insurance, Health Savings Accounts and Healthcare Utilization," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(3), pages 357-371, March.
    4. Desu Liu & Mario Menegatti, 2019. "Optimal saving and health prevention," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 128(2), pages 177-191, October.
    5. Jessica Leight & Nicholas Wilson, 2020. "Framing Flexible Spending Accounts: A Large‐Scale Field Experiment on Communicating the Return on Medical Savings Accounts," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(2), pages 195-208, February.
    6. Song Chen & Anthony Lo Sasso & Aneesh Nandam, 2013. "Who funds their health savings account and why?," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 13(3), pages 219-232, December.
    7. Mario Menegatti, 2021. "Risk aversion in two-period rent-seeking games," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 188(1), pages 269-287, July.
    8. Ghislando, S & Manachotphong, W & Perego, VME, 2013. "The impact of Universal Health Coverage on healthcare consumption and risky behaviours: evidence from Thailand," Working Papers 11200, Imperial College, London, Imperial College Business School.

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