Health Savings Accounts may prove to be a sound financial vehicle for 2009 and beyond. Enrollment in HSAs is clearly up by almost any measure. The following article indicates that the balances in HSA accounts suffered along with other financial vehicles over the past six months, however, they have not experienced the same decrease that Health Investment Accounts (HIAs) have. This HSA account decrease may also be explained by users inability to fund their accounts at the same rate as in the past. Read the following article to learn more.
01/27/2009
Investment News (Crain’s)
While the equity markets were in free fall, health savings accounts managed to make it through the third quarter of 2008 with just small decreases in value, according to Canopy Financial Inc. The San Francisco-based provider of technology platforms for HSAs released its third-quarter findings today. The report said that during the third quarter, the average balance of a family HSA fell 4%, to $1,598, while the average balance of an individual HSA was down 2%, to $948.
Health investment accounts, or HIAs, which allow clients to place investment dollars into mutual funds, took a harder hit than HSAs.
The average balance of a third-quarter HIA for individuals fell to $11,488, a 17% decrease, while the family HIA declined 8%, to $13,459.
Families and those 51 and older had the highest average amounts invested in their HSAs, with $16,723 and $16,337, respectively.
In terms of how the money was spent, individual and family HSA account holders spent the most on dental services – an average of $328 for individuals and $296 for families.
