What's the latest tactic that large corporations are using to deal with skyrocketing health insurance prices? They're shifting a higher percentage of the costs onto their employees by moving them into high deductible plans -- a trend that could, according to the LA Times, "reshape the medical insurance landscape and sharply redistribute costs, risks and responsibilities for many of the 160 million Americans with private coverage."

With the high-deductible plan, workers pay lower monthly premiums and their employers commonly help them build up a special savings account to cushion the impact of a larger annual deductible. The accounts are controlled by the employees, which has led insurers and employers to label the plans "consumer-directed."

Even if high-deductible plans offer immediate relief for many workers, and big cost savings to employers, the allure may not last. And the plans may do little or nothing to solve the basic problem of soaring health costs.

"You're beginning to see a lot of growth in these plans, not because they're going to solve America's healthcare challenge, but because it's a way for employers to cut their out-of-control benefit costs," said Robert Laszewski, a consultant to health insurance companies. "Any time an employer can raise deductibles from $200 to $1,000, it is going to reduce their costs. But will it reduce U.S. health costs generally? The jury is still really out on that."

The reason, he said, is that 10% of the people — the sickest Americans — account for 70% of total healthcare costs. "Once the sick people have gone through their deductible, they're back to a regular health plan — the incentives for them don't really change," Laszewski said.

"This is a cost shift device, and not a means to fundamentally control healthcare costs."

Moreover, the willingness of workers to sign up for less generous plans may change over time, as workers and their families get older and more likely to encounter serious medical costs.

"To make these plans truly work, they have to work for the sickest population — it can't be a plan that only works for the healthy," said Joe Walshe, a principal with the consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. "It's very difficult, but that's where the challenge is."

In the meantime, the short-term appeal of high-deductible plans is easy to see. Employees get a bit more take-home pay. Employers get some relief from higher healthcare costs.

High deductibles, minimal coverage, and no real cost savings? Clearly, our nation's best HR minds are just fresh out of good ideas when it comes to protecting their employees from the depredations of a hopelessly dysfunctional healthcare system. Nice to see they haven't lost their touch with the soothing corporate euphemism, though.

Consumer. Directed. Plans.

Take that, Jacques!

MORE: Via Tapped, physician and author Robin Cook explains why human genome research will speed "the inevitable movement to universal health care" here in the US.