Dental Costs Account for 15% of Consumers' Health Spending: Lively
The HSA firm found something surprising about out-of-pocket spending patterns.
The COVID-19 pandemic may have little or no effect on how U.S. consumers with health savings accounts allocated their HSA money, according to new data from Lively, an HSA services provider.
The San Francisco-based firm used its own data and data from other sources to produce an HSA holder tracking report.
The amount of Lively customers’ out-of-pocket health care spending has increased over the years, but the share of HSA withdrawals going to pay for medical care, dental care, vision care and other types of expenses held surprisingly steady.
Lively HSA holders spent 15% of their withdrawals on dental care in 2023. That was down, slightly, from 15.5% in 2022 and from 16% in 2019, before the COVID pandemic began.
What it means: Reports from Lively and other HSA providers may be a good source of information about how much relatively affluent clients with significant savings and solid insurance really spend on health care each year.
The details: For Lively HSA holders, average employer contributions fell to $1,163 in 2023, from $1,714 in 2022, but average account balances increased to $4,885, from $3,328.
Average withdrawals increased to $1,162, from $943.
The share of the withdrawals going to pay for medical care increased slightly, to 81%, from 80.2% in 2022, and was unchanged from 81% in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic began.
The share of withdrawals going to pay for vision care has hovered around 3% for the past five years.
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