“It would improve American health care dramatically.”
Today a coalition representing some of the nation’s top health policy experts and health-freedom advocates joined HSAs for All in sending a warm endorsement letter to the House Republican Study Committee, applauding the RSC’s exciting new health care plan.
Among other things, the plan would greatly expand tax-free Health Savings Accounts. HSAs liberate consumers to take control of their personal health care destiny. All Americans could contribute to an HSA under the new plan. (Currently about 90 percent of Americans cannot contribute to an HSA, due to various restrictions imposed by Congress.) And the amount that a family could contribute to its HSA account, tax-free, would nearly triple to $18,000 a year. This is an historic breakthrough for HSA-expansion efforts.
The letter is similar to one sent earlier today by HSAs for All.
Here is the full text of the letter:
October 22, 2019
Representative Mike Johnson | Chairman, Republican Study Committee | U.S. House of Representatives | Washington, D.C. 20515
Dear Congressman Johnson:
On behalf of America’s rapidly expanding HSA community—25 million and growing—we are pleased to endorse the Republican Study Committee’s “Framework for Affordable, Personalized Care” and especially its historic and strategically brilliant proposals to expand and strengthen Health Savings Accounts (HSAs).
You and your RSC colleagues can be proud of this excellent plan, which would improve American health care dramatically. HSAs are a proven model shown to reduce health care costs and promote patient freedom, sovereignty, and happiness. We believe all Americans should be free to choose their own doctors and therapies, and pay for their own health care, without arbitrary limits. We work every day to promote the idea of “HSAs-for-all,” a simple but powerful reform that offers an escape route from the dead-end of health insurance bureaucracy, public and private.
The RSC proposal expands and strengthens HSAs in three key ways:
- De-links HSAs from health insurance, allowing everyone, including the uninsured, to have an HSA.
- Nearly triples the pre-tax contributions Americans can make to an HSA, to $18,000 a year for a family.
- Lets Americans use HSA money, tax-free, to cover such alternatives to insurance as direct primary care and
health care sharing.
Indeed, in principle the plan embraces all five of the following “HSAs-for-all” goals:
- Universal Access. Let anyone have a tax-free health savings account who wants one, including the uninsured. Delink HSAs from insurance.
- Unlimited After-Tax Contributions. Let everyone save as much after-tax money in their HSA as they want (including contributions from friends and loved ones), without arbitrary limits. (Note: While the RSC proposal does not eliminate contribution limits, it does increase them significantly.)
- Unlimited Tax-Free Buildup. Let savings build up inside HSAs, tax-free, without limit.
- Unlimited Tax-Free Distributions. Let everyone spend their HSA savings, tax-free, for legitimate medical expenses, without limit.
- True Freedom of Choice. Let people use their HSA savings for alternatives to insurance like health care sharing and direct-pay medicine (direct primary care).
Thank you for your leadership for America’s health care consumers.
Dean Clancy, President, HSAs for All
Dan Perrin, Executive Director, HSA Coalition
Ryan Ellis, President, Center for a Free Economy
Eric Novack, M.D., Chairman, U.S. Health Freedom Coalition
Beverly Gossage, Director, HSA Benefits Consulting
Charles Sauer, Founder and President, Market Institute
Linda Gorman, Director, Health Policy Center, Independence Institute
James L. Martin, Founder/Chairman, 60 Plus Association
Saulius “Saul” Anuzis, President, 60 Plus Association
Phil Kerpen, President, American Commitment
J. James Rowsey, M.D.
view pdf copy of the original letter