Have Less than $3k in Health Savings? So Do Most Americans

Discover how ful is growing small health savings into big member wins.

There’s a huge flaw in the way most Americans are paying for and receiving their healthcare coverage. And it all has to do with cost-sharing. Intended to increase plans’ efficiency, cost-sharing is when members pay for a small portion of the coverage they’re utilizing—often in the form of deductibles or co-pays. Ideally, with dollars at stake on both sides, members will spend more affordably and strategically.

But this isn’t the case. Because of excessive cost-sharing, a growing burden on the member, many households are going bankrupt just trying to reach their deductibles. In fact, in a 2020 national survey, conducted with the Los Angeles Times, KFF found that over 50% of non-senior adults are unable to pay for a $400 medical expense without going to into debt1. So, with deductibles skyrocketing, plan members are stripping away their savings for costly yet functionally worthless coverage.

From Cost Sharing to Cost Bearing
Though cost-sharing is designed to make healthcare shopping practical for plans and members alike, too much of a cost burden on households leads to financial stress and discouragement from even attempting to seek care. When faced with healthcare costs, many Americans, even after using all their savings, must choose between borrowing from family, high-interest debt, or bankruptcy.

In today’s marketplace, healthcare has become mathematically impossible for the average household: Where single-person out-of-pocket limits for private plans are approaching $10,000, over half of single-person households have less than $3,000 saved, and nearly a third of single-person households have less than $1,000 saved1.

And this isn’t just a crisis for lower earners or single individuals. Even for Americans making up to 1.5 times the poverty level, 60% still have less than $1,000 saved. For families too, out-of-pocket limits for private plans are approaching $20,000, an amount of savings that over two thirds of multi-person households don’t have access to1. With healthcare becoming virtually unaffordable for millions, it’s more critical than ever that members discover a savvier way to spend and a more powerful way to save built on stronger access to care.

ful.—A Health Savings Launchpad
At ful, we believe that it’s time to reinvent how employers and members approach their healthcare finances. And it starts with two problems at the crux of the cost-sharing issue—members have neither adequate cost saving strategies for today nor healthcare investment strategies for tomorrow. The solution? ful, a platform that empowers members to seek short-term savings and grow them into long-term earnings.

Step one is the HDHP (High Deductible Health Plan) and HSA (Health Savings Account). Here, members are already paying significantly less in premiums, with the potential to save those dollars in tax-free HSAs.

From there, step two of the ful solution is monthly learning opportunities, quizzes incentivized with employer HSA contribution dollars, that help members enrich their healthcare with smart savings and investment strategies. Now, members are on the fast track to a rapidly growing health savings safety net. But that’s still just the start of ful.

Then, in step three, the member journey comes ful circle with transparency and cost-comparison resources that make shopping for affordable and covered care— easy and convenient. By taking surprise bills out of the picture, ful boosts how much members can save annually while empowering them to confidently use their coverage. It’s a snowball effect of savings built on savings, changing the healthcare game for employers and members.

Ready to see how ful can transform your plan?

Discover ful’s Health Savings Revolution at https://ful-health.com.

Sources

  1. https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/brief/many-households-do-not-have-enough-money-to-pay-cost-sharing-in-typical-private-health-plans/