Does anyone have a rational for requiring an HDHP to qualify for an HSA?

It would make better sense, from a consumer point of view, to be able to open an HSA account, and eventually obtain an HDHP or other qualifying health care related insurance product, before payment can be disbursed from that account.

If there is any public sector interference at all, it should only affect the consumer in how that health care capital fund is spent, and not impose a barrier on the accumulation of health care capital.

Why are there any restrictions on the type of health insurance a consumer can use their capital on? Ideally, any money (health capital) saved by the individual consumer should not have any restrictions on how the money is spent; if it is for health related purposes.

For example, if I want to purchase any type of health plan, using pretax dollars; I should be able to purchase the most cost effective plan for my current needs. I should not be limited to only specific plans, since market conditions can change over time.

Public policy could be used to reduce public and private sector costs and improve the infrastructure that can result in better standards of living for the participants of a given market (e.g. healthcare).

One welfare-state public policy could be to better enable consumer and market friendly financial tools in order to foster more activity in (add liquidity to) the market for health care..

I think a more appropriate use of public sector interference would be to use the scale economies made possible by its consumer base; to create or expand more public sector research and development capability in the pharmaceutical sector, in order to reduce the cost of basic research and development to the private sector.

A goal of this type of policy would be to help reduce time to market for the private sector and lower private sector costs in research and development. The private sector can benefit from economies of scale that result from using the product of existing public sector research and development institutions.

These types of public sector ventures can be used to manufacture forms of public goods; and, in the process reduce costs to both the prublic and private sectors.