SOTU: Health Savings Accounts Offer Americans No Meaningful Savings
SOTU: Health Savings Accounts Offer Americans No Meaningful Savings
Bush said: “The Congress must also expand health savings accounts.”
FACT — HSAs MAY INCREASE THE NUMBER OF UNINSURED: “While 3.8 million previously uninsured people would gain health coverage through HSAs as a result of the Administration’s proposals, 4.4 million people would become uninsured because their employers would respond to the new tax breaks by dropping coverage and they would not secure coverage on their own. The net effect would be to increase the number of uninsured Americans by 600,000 despite spending more than $10 billion annually.” [CBPP, 4/5/06]
FACT — HSAs DO NOT OFFER MEANINGFUL SAVINGS FOR AMERICANS: “Low- and middle-income uninsured people will gain meager or no tax savings” from health savings accounts, according to a Commonwealth Fund study. Roughly 50 percent of uninsured adults pay no federal income taxes, meaning that “tax incentives for high-deductible health plans would have little impact on uninsured adults.” [Commonwealth Fund, 4/05]
FACT — HSAs PRIMARILY BENEFIT THE RICH: The Government Accountability Office (GAO) found “that the average income of HSA users was $133,000 in 2004, compared to $51,000 for all non-elderly tax filers.” Most low-income individuals “do not face high enough tax liability to benefit in a significant way from tax deductions associated with HSAs.” [CBPP, 12/7/06; Kaiser Familiy Foundation, 10/4/06]
FACT — HSAs WILL NOT DECREASE THE NUMBER OF UNINSURED: HSAs are “not likely to be an important contributor to expanding coverage among uninsured people” because most of uninsured Americans “do not face high-enough marginal tax rates to benefit substantially from the tax deductibility of HSA contributions.” [Commonwealth Fund, 4/05]
FACT — AMERICANS ARE DISSATISFIED WITH HSAs: Just 33-42 percent of enrollees in consumer-driven health plans were satisfied with their health care, compared to 63 percent of those people with traditional coverage. Two-thirds of people prefer an employer-selected set of plans over an employer-funded account and choosing insurance on their own. [Commonwealth Fund, 12/05]
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Someone PLEASE stand up for this country and SCREAM
January 28th, 2008 at 9:26 pmYOU FU(KING TRAITOR!!!!!
The 3 words I want the next Prez to say as his/her first words after being sowrn in…
January 28th, 2008 at 9:30 pmARREST THESE MEN.
Whitehouse IS TAKING CALLS NOW.
1-20-456-1111
The 3 words I want the next Prez to say as his/her first words after being sowrn in…
January 28th, 2008 at 10:09 pmARREST THESE MEN.
1. FACT – HSA May increase uninsured. How can you use the word FACT, followed by maybe, might, could perhaps, or “MAY”….
January 29th, 2008 at 9:54 am2. FACT -you have to make money to actually pay taxes! so if you don’t make enough money to pay taxes, how can you receive a tax break?
3. FACT – the Commenwealth Fund and US Magazine – two excellent publications
4. FACT – anytime someone uses the word FACT, you know the statement that follows is false (excluding the comments in this post!
5. Instead is criticizing, how about coming up with some ideas to help the healthcare situation.
This country’s health and medical levels have steadily deteriorated. In terms of industrialized nations, while health costs are the highest, health care quality is among the lowest. Study after study shows our dismal ranking in terms of infant mortality rates, life expectancy and unnecessary deaths to name just three.
And we still hear universal health care scorned and reviled. We still hear the myths about having to wait months and months for simple medical procedures which will be horribly botched by British or Canadian or French or German or Swiss doctors. Meanwhile, 47 million adults and about 10 million children have no health insurance. Since 2001, premiums for family coverage have increased 78%, while wages have gone up 19%. In 2007, the annual premium for a family of four was $12,106. Additionally, fewer businesses are
offering health benefits, and employment has shifted to jobs where health benefits are less likely to be offered.
Medical debts are the largest cause of bankruptcy in the US. 68 percent of those who filed for bankruptcy had health insurance. In addition, the study found that 50 percent of all bankruptcy filings were partly the result of medical expenses. Every 30 seconds in the United States someone files for bankruptcy in the aftermath of a serious health problem. These facts, by the way, come from an insurance company: http://www.kff.org/uninsured/upload/1420_09.pdf
Per person, the US spends MORE money insuring LESS of a percentage of people than ALLother major, western, industrialized nations. More money per person, less people covered.
The solution … as in most of these other countries: universal health care, single payer setup. Why hasn’t it happened here? Special interest groups. Corporate control of the legislative process through lobbying, campaign contributions and porkbarrelling.
P.S. If you’re going to argue this point, do yourself a favor and come up with facts from respected periodicals. Do a detailed, factual comparison of other western countries’ health systems. Then write. Otherwise, you’re just repeating republican, pro-corporate, pro-pharma, pro-insurance talking points. And we’ve heard enough of those to bring us to this disastrous point. “Nuff said.
January 29th, 2008 at 5:12 pm