If you are one of the 45 million Americans that uses a Health Savings Account (HAS) or a Flexible Spending Account (FSA) to pay for a portion of your health care expenses, as of January 1, 2011, you lose a key benefit of those plans. Before passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obomacare for short) you could use the money contributed to these accounts to pay for over the counter medicine. After January 1st this will no longer be the case. For example - you have arthritis that you managed with an over the counter medicine, if you want to use your HSA money to pay for it, you will now have to go to the doctor and get a prescription.
For readers not familiar with health savings accounts, here is a short explanation. Unlike a traditional health insurance plan, the health insurance plan tied to a HSA or FSA has a very large deductible, at least $5000. To cover this large deductible, the government allowed a pre tax savings account that could be used only for health care. So you (the employee) and in most cases your employer would contribute money to this account and your day to day health care costs were paid out of this account. If your health expenses went over the deductible, your health insurance kicked in and it paid 80-100% of you expenses over that depending on the plan. It was a great plan that eliminated the day to day hassle of arguing with the insurance company for the vast majority of your health care needs. The company I work for instituted a HSA and we have been able to hold our health insurance cost far below the national level and the employees love the program.
Our company is the very people the President was addressing when he said “If you like your health plan you can keep it”. In fact he said that time and time again. And now we find out that was a lie. The President either lied or had absolutely no idea what the heck was in the bill. Whichever it was, we were told we can keep our health care plan if we liked in and now this bill makes that not possible.
I am still waiting for someone who supports this ridiculous bill to explain to me how this helps in any way. How forcing me to go to a doctor for a prescription for a medicine that I could purchase over the counter helps make my care more “affordable”. How reducing the freedom I have to spend my health care dollars as I see fit “protects” me.
If that is not bad enough over the next four years, Obamacare slowly reduces the amount that a employer can contribute to these plans to the point that they no longer will be economically feasible. One of the key provisions of this bill is to destroy any kind of heath care savings accounts. So what has been one of the best ways to reduce health care cost, and what has been one of the best ways to truly give consumers control over their health care dollars that takes that control away from insurance companies - - is destroyed by this bill.
I am still waiting for an explanation……
This effort to undo the small advances made as a result of Obama's efforts are seriously misguided in my opinion. Insurance can't work unless ALL people are in the pool. Giving people a choice about whether or not they want to purchase insurance is really not an issue. It's like giving people a choice about whether or not they want to get sick. There's really no choice at the heart of this matter. All people need insurance. All communities need to be protected from the high costs to their local hospitals (if they're lucky enough to have one!) of having to provide services to uninsured or under-insured patients. I think all of us would "choose" to not pay for health insurance premiums right up to the time that we have a life threatening situation and need care urgently.
ReplyDeleteI hope you will make an effort to understand the reasoning behind our efforts. We're not mad socialists trying to curtail your freedoms. We are caring individuals who've worked hard to try and interject some sanity into our health care delivery system. It is untenable at the moment. The Health Care Reform Act has made some small advances to try and correct that. This cannot continue to be left in the hands of uncaring, corporate insurers who's only motivation in all of this is to turn a profit.
LiberalCowboy has it right...why you guys want to people get health care that couldn't before is beyond me. Why do you only think of yourselves?
ReplyDeleteI understand complete, I just disagree.
ReplyDeleteYou say you have no problem taking away my rights to help someone else. You have no problem making the decision that someone else deserves the fruits of my labor more that I do. You obviously have no problem taking the health insurance I prefer so you can buy health insurance for someone else. You say I must sacrifice my choice for the benefit of society…. Then you say you are not a socialist. Sorry you are a socialist.
Because you believe my right to make my own health care decisions is not a big deal you have no problem removing that right. I am sure you have no problem removing my right to make my own retirement decisions, or my right to decide if I want to wear a seat belt. It is always one little right that we need to take away until there are no longer any rights left.
You did not explain to me why destroying HSA accounts does anything to accomplish the goals you say the bill attempting to accomplish. Taking the violation of constitutional rights completely out of the picture why does the bill need to dismantle my health care plan to provide health care for the people who can’t or won’t but health insurance?
And where does it all end, you say health care is important so the government must force it on everyone. But proper food, water, housing, transportation, jobs are equally or more important. How long in your eyes before the government must take control and dictate all of these necessities also.
I meet a lot of people who are caring with other people’s money. Don’t think because I am not willing to spend your tax dollars for causes I think are important that I am not caring. But I realize that socialism is a failed experiment. A little socialism fails a little and a lot of socialism fails a lot. The best hope for people at the lowest rung of the economic ladder is as free an economic system as possible. History proves it time and time again. If you were to organize a charity with the goal of helping people obtain health insurance that do not have it I would be happy to contribute but it is not a job legally or morally for the federal government.