If we could see the return of individual HSA plans to the marketplace, this would be truly incredible!
Source: I spend >$30k each year on my family's HSA plan premiums and deductible, and I run the numbers on every option that has the network we need every year, and this really is as good as it gets.
I would say this is inaccurate. They got burned by Congress allowing employer based groups to exist, therefore removing much of the healthy population from the insurance pools for the public (whose employers don’t offer insurance, or who aren’t employed). If everyone was dumped on healthcare.gov, there would be plenty of healthy lives to offset the sick lives for a viable insurance group. Maybe not in the smallest states, but it hasn’t made sense to me to separate insurance by state either.
If an HSA plan worked for you, chances are you are young and healthy and don't realize what would happen to you financially if you needed regular healthcare service under these plans.
The key is you don’t pay for healthcare expenses with the HSA, but instead pay with after-tax funds and save the receipts. Later (many years later), you can take out the HSA money and spend it in retirement tax-free (up to the cumulative amount of medical receipts you’ve paid and accumulated).
Used this way, it’s a retirement account (one with hands-down the best tax treatment), not a health care savings/spending account. To get it you have to have a HDHP and cover the expenses along the way.