[Ccarc] Helath Savings accounts

[Tom Murray]

                          Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report
						  
                        
			



										

			Opinion | Democrats Launch 'Stealthy Assault' on Health Savings Accounts With Provision in Tax Bill, Editorial States
			[Apr 21, 2008]
			
			
			      The House last week passed a tax bill (HR 5719) that included a provision
under which individuals with tax-free health savings accounts would
have to provide evidence that they used funds in the accounts for
medical purposes, a "stealthy assault on Americans who prefer the
private-sector option" of HSAs, a Wall Street Journal
editorial states. According to the editorial, "Democrats have made
affordable health care a mainstay of their election agenda, but
apparently only if you're willing to get insurance through the
government."

Democrats maintain that the provision would "ensure
that consumers are using their tax-free withdrawals for a knee
replacement, rather than a new iPod," the editorial states, adding, "In
reality it adds a layer of bureaucracy that could sharply reduce the
appeal and cost savings of HSAs." The editorial questions the need for
the provision because any "withdrawal from an HSA is already subject to
a federal tax audit, just as individual tax returns are." In addition,
"if people cheat on their HSAs, they are only cheating themselves"
because, when a "medical expense arises below the insurance deductible,
they will be the ones paying for it, whether from their HSA or another
bank account," according to the editorial. 

Democrats "decry
the high and rising costs of health care, including insurance
'overhead,'" but supporters of the provision "want to impose the same
bureaucratic overhead even on spending that consumers do with their own
money," the editorial states, adding, "The Senate should stop this one
dead in its tracks" (Wall Street Journal, 4/19).  
			
			
			
 
                          

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