Health Savings Account-Health Savings Account Info

The MobFather asked:


1. Remove the legal obstacles that slow the creation of high-deductible health insurance plans and health savings accounts (HSAs).
2. Equalize the tax laws so that that employer-provided health insurance and individually owned health insurance have the same tax benefits. Now employer health insurance benefits are fully tax deductible, but individual health insurance is not.
3. Repeal all state laws which prevent insurance companies from competing across state lines. (Increased Competition)
4. Repeal government mandates regarding what insurance companies must cover. These mandates have increased the cost of health insurance by billions of dollars. What is insured and what is not insured should be determined by individual customer preferences and not through special-interest lobbying.
5. ?Enact tort reform to end the ruinous lawsuits that force doctors to pay insurance costs of hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. These costs are passed back to us through much higher prices for health care.
6. Make costs transparent so that consumers understand what health-care treatments cost. How many people know the total cost of their last doctor’s visit and how that total breaks down? What other goods or services do we buy without knowing how much they will cost us?
7. Enact Medicare reform. We need to face up to the actuarial fact that Medicare is heading towards bankruptcy and enact reforms that create greater patient empowerment, choice and responsibility.
8. Finally, revise tax forms to make it easier for individuals to make a voluntary, tax-deductible donation to help the millions of people who have no insurance and aren’t covered by Medicare, Medicaid or the State Children’s Health Insurance Program.

What is your reason for NOT trying some of these before we allow a massive government power grab?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052970204251404574342170072865070.html

Rico.. uh. do you not understand the point of the article??

Good lord man..
ASH.. There have been no less than 6 proposals by republicans in the house ..

BUT.. Wrangle (D) has refused to even allow a vote on the committee..

Why do you think that is?

Ardis Yordy

Marjery B asked:


I have a strained relationship with 3 brothers, father. The oldest brother, David, had mental health issues. I borrowed him large sums of money for rent/food. No one else supported me, or supported David. They said they couldn’t afford it-debts. David would have been homeless. David started to do well again. He had a good job. He succumbed to his mental illness & killed himself. David’s life insuarnce money is here. He left no beneficiery. A ******* note was addressed to me as next of kin. My Dad turned the money over to me to distribute as diplomatically as possible. My Dad only instructed me to reimburse myself for Brother’s debt to me and my funeral expenses. My other two brothers want ‘thier fair share’ (equal 1/4 of money) like a week ago-they have debts, etc My first inclination is to set up 529C college savings accounts for my children and nieces and nephews that will never know their uncle-and/or donate to mental health research/suicide hotline.

Charlie Goldinger

jusme asked:


Congress is in session today.

H. Res. 621
Text of H. Res. 621: Ensuring access to affordable and quality health care without increasing the Federal budget.
Introduced in House. This is the original text of the bill as it was written by its sponsor and submitted to the House for consideration. This is the latest version of the bill available on this website.

HRES 621 IH

111th CONGRESS

1st Session

H. RES. 621

Ensuring access to affordable and quality health care without increasing the Federal budget or contributing to market inflation while providing greater choices for patient-focused care for individuals and families.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

July 9, 2009

Mrs. MCMORRIS RODGERS submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committees on Ways and Means and the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

——————————————————————————–
RESOLUTION

Ensuring access to affordable and quality health care without increasing the Federal budget or contributing to market inflation while providing greater choices for patient-focused care for individuals and families.

Whereas there are real challenges facing the United States health care system, and Congress continues to debate how to expand access to affordable, quality health care and health insurance coverage;

Whereas the United States spends substantially more on health care than other developed countries, with total health care spending reaching $2,200,000,000,000 a year or close to $7,000 for each American;

Whereas health care spending consumes about 17 percent of the gross domestic product;

Whereas there are approximately 46 million uninsured in the United States;

Whereas 18 to 35 year olds are the most underinsured section of the population;

Whereas more than half of the uninsured work for a small business;

Whereas every American should have health insurance coverage and the freedom to choose and control it;

Whereas health care is personal and the doctor-patient relationship must be protected;

Whereas Americans value choice and control over their health care decisions;

Whereas greater government involvement in our Nation’s health sector would lead to higher costs, fewer medical discoveries and treatments, delays in access to care, and excessive and expensive increases in paperwork and bureaucracy;

Whereas Americans can improve quality and access in a way that also reduces costs by bringing more competition and choice into the health care sector and by giving people additional tools and incentives to become equal partners in managing their health spending and their care; and

Whereas Americans must begin to refocus our Nation’s health sector on encouraging wellness and prevention, since health problems caught early are far less expensive to effectively address and treat: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives that in order to ensure access to affordable and quality health care without increasing the Federal budget or contributing to market inflation while providing greater choices for patient-focused care for individuals and families, the following principles should be included in any health care bill considered by the 111th Congress:

(1) The ability to receive point-of-service health care in preventative, emergency, and rehabilitative settings in rural and urban areas. This must also advance critical health care training programs to retain health care professionals and find a meaningful, long-term solution for the sustainable growth rate formula that will accurately reimburse physicians for the care they provide to Medicare beneficiaries.

(2) With refundable tax credits for the purchase of health insurance by low-income recipients together with tax credits for small businesses and access to association and small business, the cost of health care is within the reach of families and individuals while reducing costs without hurting the patient.

(3) Medical liability reform to bring much needed change to the civil justice system that is being exploited by trial lawyers and is responsible for driving up malpractice and health care costs.

(4) Safe and effective health service with measurable results through the implementation of health information technology.

(5) Build new incentives into health plans to encourage wellness, prevention, and to provide incentives for people to make smart choices involving their health, care, treatment, and health insurance coverage.

(6) Give people the ability to choose the best health care plan and options to meet their individual and family needs through portable health insurance and Health Savings Accounts.

This bill is v

Guy Kritikos

Aurora Storm asked:


I had a part time job. During that time, I found out how nice it was to have my own money. I quit in October and have officially run out of money.. nothing was saved for University texts or tuition. I have a Health Internship this summer and will earn a flat fee of 2000 dollars – is there any way to keep the money from ever reaching my hands? I’ve suggested my parents set up a savings account from me that I can’t access, but there might be better ways that actually teach me to save, instead of constantly spending on frivolous things.. I **** that I do, but I can’t seem to stop. Any suggestions that could help me save for my future? I’m 16 right now, and have an (empty) chequeing account with my bank.

Eartha Leinweber

Wayne Smith asked:


I am changing jobs and this employer offers a HSA option that I find attractive. I like the concept but I’m concerned about what happens if I leave that employer down the road and the new employer does not offer a high deductible policy (i.e. I’m no longer eligible for the plan). I could always buy a policy myself above and beyond the HSA amount but I will likely prefer to handle this through my employer. Any info?

Enola Alterio

jwthoughts asked:


4 easy steps which would turn our health care problems around. How is this not more effective, and certainly cheaper than the dems plan?

You want a 3 step plan that would be much more effective than the entire health care reform proposal of the dems.

1. Tort reform
2. Open up interstate insurance so companies can compete across state lines.
3. Treat and deport illegal immigrants who go to emergency room (and check EVERYONE’S legal status so liberals do not screams “profiling”
4. Give tax incentives to those who increase their deductible to $5000 and invest in health savings accounts. If everyone who was relatively healthy would do #4, health insurance rates would drop overnight because claims would drop, and insurance companies would be scrambling to keep a few on low deductible insurance, so they would have MUCH more competitive rates.

No insurance was every designed to pay for day to day bills. The purpose of insurance is for catastrophes. I took my deductible from $1000 to $5000 and saved the $4000 in a HSA in 5 months. Now my HSA has almost $20,000 in it. I am saving a fortune.
Heil…oops. Quickly read WOULD missed the N’T
bash…that 1% figure is pure bull. It is manipulated intentionally by those who oppose tort reform. Consider that all doctors pay between 25% and 40% of their gross income to malpractice insurance depending on type of medicine practices, and your 1% figure is blown out of the water.
As for the pre-existing. NO solution is going to fix what is today and yesterday. It can only fix tomorrow.
jefferson…go spend a month in Europe…talk to the people. What we have is better than what Europe has right now…and what we have is broken. Europe’s systems are horrible.
Heil…exactly where do you think that government would gain power?
Tort reform – no power gain
Open up interstate insurance – no power gain
Treat and deport – no power gain…actually enforcing laws that exist
Incentives for self-insuring small stuff…no power gain…
WTF are you talking about?
Tucking…there already is an insurance board in every state. If the insurance companies are using unfair practices (such as paying coverage many times, then deciding not to) that is already illegal, but nobody seems to know that they have an advocate in the insurance boards. I have had help from them 3 times on denied claims. My claims were paid 3 times. But VERY FEW people I have ever talked to even know that they exist. This is an education problem.
lawgirl…actually treat and deport would be HUGE.

As for high deductibles, you could not be more wrong. Most people who do not have insurance refuse it because people like you convince them that they need low deductibles. The fact is that we are OVER medicated as a nation. We go to the emergency room for a sniffle or a sneeze. We are treated for such simple things that our parents would NEVER have gone to the doctor for. With incentives for Medical savings accounts, only a fool would not take advantage of it…and it is not societies role to fix the mind of a great fool.
yutsnark…tort reform is targeted tying of the juries hands. Two things that it impacts.

1. Limits on the amount of punitive damages. In other words, if you lose a finger, it is not worth 100 million dollars…unless gross negligence is proven.
2. Class action lawsuits are the biggest target. People like John Edwards could not walk away from a suit with over $100 million dollars when the class got an average of $5 thousand each. These suits are the cause of such incredibly high malpractice insurance rates.
tribeca…part of your response is from getting your information from the CBO, who although even they would not make the claims that Obama is making about cost, they are very pro-health care reform, therefore they manipulate the numbers with the best of them.
As for your 2% look above…that does not include malpractice insurance.
They also manipulate the insurance rates by not showing that Texas had one of the highest rates in the country prior to tort reform. Now they are in line with the other states.
Deporting aliens when you have them in custody is one hell of a lot cheaper than providing ongoing health care, the jobs lost to them, welfare to many, etc. Sorry, but that argument is just plain ignorance. And I do not give a crap who wants them to stay for what reason, IT IS THE RIGHT THING TO DO FOR THE COUNTRY!
The high deductible decreases costs so much that anyone not already on a federal program can afford their own premiums, and you give the incentive for HSA plans.
tribeca…and there is NO WAY that UHC would decrease costs for anyone in the long run. Take Canada. The Canadians were promised that a gas tax would cover their health care program forever. That gas tax has more than tripled, and their sales tax (federal and provincial) is nearly 20%, not counting their high income and property taxes…and you think THAT is affordable? Every single working person in Canada at ANY income level pays more for their health care than I do in the US… GUARANTEED!
BTW…Canada’s program is $60 BILLION short for this year…MORE TAXES AND/OR LESS SERVICE COMING TO A COUNTRY WITH UHC NEAR YOU!
And for you to call the current proposal fairly modest is laughable. Sorry, but this is TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS! *** could constitute radical to you? Republicans are against this because we know that it is nothing less than a major power and money grab, and that it is absolutely unsustainable.
tehabwa…see above about why your claim of malpractice costs being a tiny portion is a BOLD LIE by the left.
Suits do not make the companies pay huge sums of money, they make the INSURANCE companies pay huge sums of money and they make the CONSUMERS pay high medical bills and insurance premiums because of it. That argument is 100% based on ignorance.
It is not difficult to check status, and with access to the proper database would take approximately 10-30 seconds…another claim based on ignorance. As for the spreading of diseases…this is simple, cut off 100% of entitlements to illegals and punish SEVERELY those who employ or provide housing to them, and they will go the hell home.
BTW…NOBODY IN THE US CAN BE DENIED MEDICAL CARE, but if relatively all relatively healthy people opted for high deductible and HSA, insurance rates would plummet.
The last thing this country needs is to be another country with a failed national plan and the US government is too inept to run one.

Sina Olliff

Why Not Love One Another asked:


Please do not misunderstand there are many people who most of their lives have struggled just to feed their families and keep a roof over their head….

But for the average american family, such as this….

Have two, three cars.
Own a home large enough for 2 families or more to live in.
Have a savings account, retirement plan, health insurance, life insurance, credit cards, college plan or plans for children.
Own 2 or more cell phones, computers, TVS.

Seriously asking, in what way makes it ‘ Hard Times ‘ …..?

Margherita Esquivez

MonkeyPig2 asked:


* Allow consumers to purchase health insurance companies across state lines.
* Widen the availability of medical savings accounts.
* Allow consumers to deduct the cost of insurance from their taxable income.
* Allow doctors, nurses and medical suppliers to take a credit against any income taxes due for the market value of services provided free to those living at or below the poverty level.

There .. that took about 30 seconds. All viable private-sector options, yet none are on the table for the Democrats in Washington.

Royal Biggs

The real matthew asked:


Quotes of the Day:

“You could theoretically design a co-op plan that had the same attributes as a public plan.” — Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services

“Well, I think in theory you can imagine a co-operative meeting that definition.” — President Barack Obama

Subject: Beware the surrender on the so-called “public option”

The Big Government health care bill doesn’t have the votes in the Senate and it’s taking a beating in public opinion. The latest Rasmussen Report shows that 54% of Americans now think passing no health care reform at all is better than passing the current plan.

The President and Congressional leaders have responded by appearing to surrender.

President Obama claims the so-called “public option” (tax funded health insurance) isn’t crucial. They would settle for something called a co-op instead.

Beware of politicians appearing to surrender. They’re almost always “Greeks bearing gifts.” The co-op alternative to the “public option” is a Trojan Horse.

Michael F. Cannon sums it up perfectly:

“On a practical level, it makes no difference whether a new program adopts a “co-operative” model or any other. The government possesses so many tools for subsidizing its own program and increasing costs for private insurers, and has such a long history of subsidizing and protecting favored enterprises, that unfair advantages are inevitable.”

So let’s update the formula we’ve been using to describe where all this will lead . . .

Co-op = public option = single-payer, tax-funded health care = health care decisions made by bureaucrats = no consumer choice or free market competition = declining health care.

We also want to repeat our warning . . .

It will take years for the public option/co-op to bring about a politically controlled single payer system, but it will happen, as surely as night follows day.

It’s also crucial to understand that . . .

* The small amount of consumer choice and free market competition that still exists in America is what drives improved health care not only for YOU, but for the whole world.

* The more socialist systems that exist elsewhere are fundamentally dependent on the INNOVATIONS created by the small remaining sliver of American free market health care.

American health care is the proverbial goose that lays the golden egg. Kill that goose and the whole world will suffer.

We must not be fooled by the politicians’ Trojan Horse surrender. We must only accept unconditional surrender. We must demand that . . .

* Every aspect of the Big Government health care bill be defeated
* Concrete steps must be taken to restore consumer choice and free market competition (including, but not limited to, an expansion of Health Savings Accounts and an end to government mandates that drive up the price of health insurance).

Please use DownsizeDC.org’s Educate the Powerful System (sm) to tell your Congressional employees what you want.

Use your personal comments to say that the co-op plan is just as bad as the public option, and must be rejected.

To stay on pace to exceed the 50,802 messages Downsizers sent to Congress last month we must send 2,694 messages today.

Thank you for being a part of the growing Downsize DC Army. To see how fast YOUR ARMY is growing, please check out the Keeping Score Report below my signature.

Jim Babka
President
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.

Hank Lombard