BIG NEWS!
A group representing most congressional Republicans has endorsed the Five Goals of HSAs for All.
Today the House Republican Study Committee (RSC), a caucus whose membership includes a majority of Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives, issued “A Framework for Personalized, Affordable Care,” a document that endorses the basic principle of HSAs-for-all, along with a number of other health reform ideas designed to reduce costs and make health care better for everyone.
HSAs-for-all is a simple but powerful reform that offers an escape route from the dead-end of health insurance bureaucracy, public and private.
Our goal is to give every American access to affordable, high-quality health care by giving every American access to a tax-free Health Savings Account owned and controlled by the patient.
Among other things, the newly unveiled RSC plan:
- 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.
In principle, this proposal embraces all five of the 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 — a big step in the right direction.]
- 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).
Today’s announcement comes 15 months after the House passed a bill, the “Expanding HSAs Act” (H.R.6311, 115th Congress), which would have significantly improved HSAs. President Trump endorsed that bill, as did we, but unfortunately the U.S. Senate did not take it up, and it died at the end of 2018.
This historic announcement by the RSC goes well beyond the “Expanding HSAs Act” to embrace the full HSAs-for-all agenda in principle. That’s a big deal!
The RSC plan would have awesome benefits for families, helping drive down health care costs and giving each American true freedom to control his or her health care destiny.
We are excited by today’s endorsement, and proud to endorse the RSC’s “Framework for Personalized, Affordable Care.”
HSAs for All. Because health care freedom is a human right.