Companies Shift to High Deductible Health Plans

The Des Moines Register reports that Wells Fargo has joined the list of companies offering employees high-deductible health plans as the only option in 2012. The banks 180,000 employees join GE, American Express, Textron and Deere in getting rid of traditional health insurance in favor of some version of a high-deductible plan tied to a health reimbursement account or health savings account.

Forty-one percent of companies in the U.S. now offer health savings accounts, the more popular of the two savings vehicles for high-deductible plans, according to a 2011 report by Towers Watson. Another 12% of companies plan to add an HSA option in 2012, the report says.