Winners and losers under medical savings accounts.

As legislators wait to see how the MSA approach to health care reform plays out in the laboratory of the states, authors Marilyn Moon, Len M. Nichols and Susan Wall have put the numbers to work. The researchers simulated the effects of introducing MSAs into the health insurance market. What they found is what critics of MSAs suspected: As the young and healthy shift to MSAs, the premiums for those left in the remaining insurance pool will escalate. However, the authors conclude that if you are male, young and healthy, you stand to gain a lot from the MSA experiment.