Even groups that are very cautious and conservative find themselves pulled into the world of consumer-directed health care.

A couple of weeks ago I traveled to Palm Coast, Florida to give a speech to a conference of labor union executives and managers of public employee benefit programs who wanted to learn about health savings accounts.

I was very surprised to see the level of interest in the experience of other companies in experimenting with ways to engage employees in being better managers of health care resources.

Here is my PowerPoint presentation, which explains some of the recent developments in consumer-driven care.

I used as one example the biggest labor union in Manitowoc County, WI, which has agreed to HSAs for its members. Employees pay no premiums, the county puts $3,000 a year into each employee's HSA and that fully covers the deductible. What employees don't spend, they keep.

Thanks to the plan, Manitowoc County expects to save $1.1 million in 2008, and employees will save $685,000.

Money talks.