Individuals’ contributions to Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) had been increasing until 2011, but have declined since, according to new research.
Between 2011 and 2014, the percentage of individuals reporting that they contributed nothing to their HSA increased from 11% to 23%, while the percentage reporting that they contributed $1,500 or more slipped from 44% to 30%, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI).
Those results were almost a mirror image of the activity between 2006 and 2011, when the percentage of individuals with employee-only coverage contributing nothing to an HSA decreased from 28% to just 11% not contributing. During the same period, the percentage contributing $1,500 or more doubled, rising from 21% in 2006 to 44% in 2011.
Two-thirds (67%) of workers with either an HSA or a health reimbursement arrangement (HRA) reported that their employers contributed to the account in 2014, though that’s down from the 71% who reported employer contributions in 2013.
Among workers with an employer contribution, those with employee-only coverage saw their annual employer contributions increase between 2006 and 2008, and subsequently fall in 2009 and 2011. Between 2006 and 2008, the percentage reporting that their employers contributed $1,000 or more to the account increased from 26% to 37%, slipping to 32% in 2009, and tumbling to 24% in 2011. Since then, the trends have been mixed, increasing to 28% in 2012, slipping back to 23% in 2013, and bumping back to 34% last year.
Both lower- and higher-income individuals slightly lowered their contributions in 2014, and lower income individuals were less likely to contribute anything than higher-income individuals.
About 15% of the population was enrolled in a consumer-directed health plan (CDHP) in 2014, representing about 26 million individuals with private insurance. Among the 15% of individuals enrolled in a CDHP, 57% (or 9.3 million) had an HRA or had opened an HSA, while 43% were enrolled in an HSA-eligible health plan but had not opened an HSA.
The findings are based on results the 2008–2014 EBRI/Greenwald & Associates Consumer Engagement in Health Care Survey (CEHCS) and the 2006 and 2007 EBRI/Commonwealth Fund Consumerism in Health Care Survey. The full report, “Employer and Worker Contributions to Health Reimbursement Arrangements and Health Savings Accounts, 2006–2014,” is available here.
