This subject is filled more with anecdotal evidence than scientific surveys. Yet despite the wide disparity in health care spending, there were no appreciable differences in the health status of the two groups. Medical Savings Accounts encourage people to get preventive care. Critics of this approach to health care have suggested that MSAs discourage people from obtaining preventive and other necessary services. The argument is based on the notion that people will not spend nearly as much of their own money on non-emergency medical care.
Available evidence points to the opposite conclusion.
One in five employees of Golden Rule Insurance reported obtaining preventive or primary care services which they would not have purchased under a traditional health plan. As funds in the MSA are dedicated to medical care and withdrawals from the account are not subject to co-payments, individuals are free to obtain that care which they believe is necessary. MSAs rely on the intelligence of consumers to obtain care and encourages them to get their money's worth from health care expenditures. Medical Savings Accounts will benefit all income levels. This argument would only be true if the funds in an MSA account were available for non-medical uses, giving the poor an incentive to use account balances for other purposes.