Health Savings Account
On December 8, 2003, President Bush signed a law called the Health Savings Act. This law is a tax advantaged savings account available to citizens in the united States who are enrolled in a high deductible health insurance plan. The savings account is not subject to tax because it is to be used for medical expenses. This plan is a part of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act. These accounts are a part of the Consumer Driven Health Plans. It was believed that the Health Savings Accounts would generate millions of new accounts.
Many consumers as well as the Consumers Union has rejected the HSAs because they only help the healthy young people and makes the health care system more expensive for everyone. Every plan the President comes up with seems to cost the lower income people more and benefits them less. The money goes into the pockets of those who are already rich and the poor suffer even more. There has to be a large deductible paid before the savings account money can even be used. It would make more sense if the individuals opened a savings account of their own for health purposes. It seems that anytime the government has a hand in anything that is supposed to help the people, usually ends up hurting them more. This is mostly true about the lower income and middle income people. Some of the HSAs help pay for preventative health care but the large deductible has to be paid first. Some of the plans will not pay for these services. Where are the lower class people supposed to come up with this money for these deductibles? The HSAs are not getting a good response from the consumer or the Senate Finance Committee’s Subcommittee on Health.
Health Savings Accounts are similar to Medical Savings Accounts and the HSAs can be used with health plans which have decreased minimum deductibles. These changes were made into law in 2004 on January 1. HSAs can be offered to individuals in all sizes of companies by their employers and the MSAs are limited to employers who have 50 or fewer people. Some groups who work in the health insurance field feel that the HSAs are an important factor that will help reduce the costs of healthcare and increase the health care system.
There is much debate about the HSAs today and there are people on both sides that believe it is good and others who think it is not good for the people. There are just too many questions and if the HSAs are only going to help the wealthy, what good are they? These people already have health insurance so it will only improve their way of life but do nothing for the lower income people.
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