The small-business owner -- he has his own car repair shop -- tried shopping for family coverage, he was frustrated.

"All the insurance in the world doesn't do you any good if you can't afford it," he said. "They won't let you get the deductibles high enough to get the premiums low enough."

He was just about to join the 43.6 million Americans who have no health insurance when his accountant recommended a broker with something new: cheap insurance that comes with tax breaks and turns into a retirement account when he hits 65.

"A blessing" is how the 42-year-old Orlando man describes the Health Savings Account plan he bought six months ago, shortly after Congress created the newest darling of both the insurance industry and Republicans.

The plans will be touted by Gov. Jeb Bush today as he kicks off a statewide campaign by Florida's business community to promote health savings accounts. Bush also intends Monday to sign into law a bill requiring Florida insurance companies to offer the packages to small businesses.

They already are popular. More than a third of the new individual insurance policies Blachowicz's agent, Cocoa Beach broker Stephen Cress, is writing are for health savings accounts, Cress said.

Traditional insurance would have cost Blachowicz $450 a month for his family of three. The new family plan costs $166 a month.

The terms: If anyone gets sick, Blachowicz must pay a $5,000 deductible before the low-premium insurance kicks in.

But he can put up to $5,000 a year of his own money into a tax-free, interest earning trust called a Health Savings Account. As long as he spends the money for health care, even eyeglasses or dental work, it remains tax-free. When he reaches 65, the entire pot will be untaxed.

"The one-time hit, I can handle that a whole lot easier than being socked with high premiums every month," Blachowicz said.

His conviction to pay cash already has been tested. An unexpected overnight hospital stay cost several thousand dollars. Still, Blachowicz said, he likes the freedom that comes with spending his own money.

"I'm more in charge," he said.

There was little fanfare about Health Savings Accounts last year when Congress added them to a controversial Medicare prescription drug package. Backers included insurance companies and conservative, free-enterprise groups.

Months later, in a presidential contest where pollsters say Americans are concerned about health insurance costs, the savings plans are touted by Republican leaders as a positive development.

President Bush frequently lobbies for the private savings accounts on the campaign trail, including a stop in Coral Gables this spring.

Vice President Dick Cheney last week advocated health savings accounts to "strengthen our private system of care, because we know that more government is not the medicine that our health care system needs."

Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., will join Assurant, one of the insurance industry's strongest advocates of the packages, later this month to tout early sales figures.

"We definitely believe it will continue to grow and become a major if not the major model of health insurance," said Assurant's vice president of corporate communications in Milwaukee, Rob Guilbert. "And we think that's a good thing."

Florida insurers have until September to offer HSA plans to small-group employers, though so far only one company has done so, said state regulators.

But right now the plans are available from a handful of companies in Florida, to people in the individual market -- some 660,000 of the 16 million residents of the state.

Despite the limited availability, insurance industry analysts predict HSAs will soon be the hottest thing since IRA and 401(k) accounts, even hotter if Congress adopts a proposal to make the premiums tax deductible too.

But the plans have drawbacks.

Those who develop a chronic illness can find that so-called "pre-existing condition" clauses in many policies prevent them from returning to full coverage under a traditional health plan.

The tax advantages of health savings accounts are worth most to those in the highest tax brackets. The plans also work best for those who can afford to pay the high deductibles.

Health care costs are higher than they appear. Some high-deductible policies guarantee consumers the same price breaks the insurance companies get from hospitals and doctors -- but only for covered expenses by network providers.

Beyond that protective umbrella, consumers face the daunting "list prices" now charged the uninsured.

Hospital list prices in Florida are the second highest in the nation -- averaging 290 percent of actual charges -- according to research by University of Southern California health policy expert Glenn Melnick.

In March, Melnick warned Congress that list charges are so inflated and increasing so rapidly that they undermine the benefits of HSAs.

The plans also affect tax collections, warns the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington, D.C., a liberal research group focused on government impact on low- and middle-income families.

The center estimates the tax breaks associated with health savings accounts will cost the U.S. Treasury $16 billion the next 10 years, going to those in the upper income brackets.

Citing an analysis by an MIT economist, the Center warns that recruits for health savings accounts will not come from the ranks of the uninsured, but from healthy people who already have insurance and want it cheaper.

"The people who remain behind are the sicker individuals, and the low-income," said Edwin Park, a senior researcher with the center. "Our greatest concern is the market for comprehensive coverage will disappear."

Florida insurance regulators share some of those beliefs.

"Our first hope is that having HSAs will stop employers from leaving the market," said Rich Robleto, chief of Florida's Office of Insurance Regulation's Life and Health Forms and Rates Bureau. "It's harder to get people to move from (offering) nothing to something."

Neither does he expect poorer people to enjoy the tax benefits of the package. "One thing you hear is people are taking the high deductible policy because it's all they could afford," Robleto said. "They don't have the money to put into an HSA."

HSA advocates, including Gov. Bush, say the greatest benefit will be requiring consumers to spend their own money -- an incentive to forego frivolous doctor visits, seek generic drugs over brand-name prescriptions, and comparison shop.

"Self-interest does work, once you organize it in the right way," Bush said at a news conference on HSAs last month. "We believe this principal of empowering people to make choices for themselves has to be embedded in it for our country."

Park worries they'll do much more -- attempt to save money by skipping care they need. He cites a 2001 report that uninsured older individuals were twice as likely to forego follow-up doctor visits as those with comprehensive coverage.

"Cost-sharing discourages utilization of services. It's especially true for low-income families," Park said.

That is not Blachowicz's opinion, now that he has readjusted his thinking about healthcare costs.