Growing interest pushes insurers to offer more health saving accounts.

Byline: Pamela Gaynor

Oct. 17--When monthly health insurance premiums for the Sames family topped $1,000 last year, Krista Sames and her husband abandoned their traditional health plan in favor of a new form of high-deductible coverage that cost far less. The new, cheaper insurance policy enabled them to put aside savings in a tax free account to pay their out-of-pocket medical expenses.

Although the premium for the new policy -- which carries a $5,000 deductible -- has since risen 20 percent, to $368 a month, it still has not approached the level that led them to switch. They're happy they dropped their former coverage, said Sames, a certified public accountant who described herself and her husband, both in their late 40s, as relatively healthy.

Not so for Eileen Anderson and her husband, owners of Red Clay Tile Works in Bellevue, Also healthy and in their early 50s, the Andersons signed up in 1997 for a high deductible policy and a tax-free savings account to cover themselves and their two children. They ultimately ditched it. Not only did their overall health care costs balloon, they also found themselves mired in paperwork and haggling with insurers to cover their claims.

The Sames and the Andersons were pioneers. The high deductible plans they chose were forerunners of a new kind of health coverage called Health Savings Accounts, or HSAs. The new plans -- ushered in under the sweeping Medicare legislation that Congress passed last year -- are the backbone of the Bush administration's platform for stemming runaway health care costs and expanding coverage to more of the nation's 45 million uninsured.

Presidential rival John Kerry hasn't taken a position on…