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Article: J. Patrick Rooney: Promoting MSAs to give employees greater choice in health care. (medical savings accounts)(Interview)
- Article from:
- Business Insurance
- Article date:
- November 3, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 Crain Communications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Is managed care the only way to control health care costs and ensure quality? No, says J. Patrick Rooney.
Mr. Rooney, who led Golden Rule Insurance Co. for nearly two decades before becoming chairman emeritus last year, has another idea: medical savings accounts linked to high-deductible health insurance policies.
Since the early 1990s, Mr. Rooney has been pushing MSAs, one of the few new ideas to emerge on financing health care since the advent of managed health care.
The concept of MSAs is straightforward: set a very high deductible. Then, the employer contributes some of the premium savings to a special account. Employees can withdraw money from the ...