I was looking over some other stuff from the Commonwealth Fund today (see last Thursday’s post) and found this in some testimony that the Fund’s Assistant Vice President, Sara R. Collins, gave to Congress not long ago about health savings accounts (HSAs) and high-deductible health plans (HDHPs):

The U.S. Treasury Department estimates that under current law only 14 million people will ever enroll in HSA-eligible HDHPs-still a relatively small share of the overall market.

The reference for that sentence is this Fact Sheet (PDF) from the Treasury Department. It says something a little different:

THE FUTURE…

14 million by 2010 — Treasury Department projection of HSA policies (covering 25 to 30 million people) — based on current law.

Last time I checked, “ever” isn’t defined as “by 2010.” Perhaps the Commonwealth Fund somehow knows that a massive asteroid is going to strike Earth on January 1 of the following year?