What Are Health Savings Accounts?
If you have been following the debate concerning national health care, you may have heard about one of the proposals offered to reduce the cost of health care – specifically Health Savings Accounts (HSA).
First, a little background information: Employer provided health insurance came into being during World War II. Companies competing for good employees from a reduced workforce, and during a time of government imposed wage and salary freezes, looked for other inducements to attract employees. One such inducement was employer provided health insurance.
Such third-party payer plans have now come to be expected and have displaced the idea of paying for ones own health care. With someone else paying the bill, consumers had little incentive to quibble over the ever-growing costs. Now, with health care costs and the cost of insurance plans to cover them growing at unsustainable levels, employers are looking for ways to rein in these costs.
And so was born the idea of Health Savings Accounts which place health care consumers in charge of both what health care they will seek and how much they are willing to pay. In essence, an HSA eliminates the third party payer from the scene for all but catastrophic costs. Those are covered by what are termed High Deductable Health Plans.
The HSA is a tax-sheltered savings account similar to an IRA but funded for future medical purposes. HSAs were developed to help individuals currently covered under high deductable insurance plans set money aside in savings accounts to pay for medical expenses not covered by their insurance. The money set aside in an HSA belongs to the individual. Contributions, investment growth and withdrawals for health-related expenses are all tax free.
Indiana first made HSAs available as an option for their state employees five years ago. In the first year, 4% of their 30,000 employees opted for the plan. That percentage has now grown to over 70%. In Indiana’s HSA, the state deposits $2,750 per year into an account controlled by the employee, out of which he pays all his health bills. Indiana covers the premiums for the High Deductible Health Plan. Unused funds – to date some $30 million or about $2,000 per employee – are worker’s permanent property.
Overall, participants in the new plan ran up only $65 in cost for every $100 incurred by those employees still covered by the old health insurance plan. There is no evidence HSA members are more likely to defer needed care or common-sense preventive measures such as routine physicals or mammograms.
Indiana’s employees have shown that Americans can make sound, thrifty decisions about their own health. Health Savings Accounts can provide that opportunity.
Sources: “Fighting The High Costs Of Health Care” – Steven Merkel
“Hoosiers and Health Savings Accounts” – Mitch Daniels
Is It A “Living” Document?
Concerns and questions raised by United States citizens during town hall meetings and “tea parties rallies” held throughout this nation have centered on actions by our federal government that many believe to be unconstitutional. Those who support the progressive movement which began in this country over one hundred years ago believe our Constitution to be a “living” document. They believe the interpretation of this document should change with the changing times in the United States.
Most Americans reject this view; hence the large crowds of citizens who gather to protest many recent actions by members of Congress and the current administration. The recent elections in Virginia, New Jersey and Massachusetts are an indication that their actions are providing positive results.
This renewed interest in our Constitution – especially Article I, Section 8 which clearly spells out the limited role of Congress – accounts for the participation of over 33,000 people from throughout our country in a day long on-line seminar held on Saturday, January 30. The free seminar “Reviving the Constitution” was sponsored by Hillsdale College. For those interested, it has been archived and may be found and viewed at the following website: www.hillsdale.edu/kirbycenter
If you agree with me that our Constitution is NOT a living document, I urge you to take advantage of opportunities to voice our opinion – especially at the polls during the primary election in August and the general election in November.
Does the Oath of Office Mean Anything?
United States congressmen in both the House of Representatives and the Senate are required to take the following oath prior to assuming their elected position.
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.
One would presume that this oath is taken in all seriousness and with the full intention to abide by the contents; however, this is called into question when we consider an increasing number of bills passed by Congress and signed into law by the President that are outside the intent of the United States Constitution specifically Article I, Section 8 which spells out the powers of Congress.
Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defense and general Welfare of the United States;…..
The Constitution goes on to spell out clearly the limited duties of Congress. The Tenth Amendment further clarifies these restrictions.
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
Some Congressmen point to the general welfare clause of Section 8 as a source for their expanded powers; however, this thought should be dispelled when we consider the words of James Madison, considered by many to be the Father of our Constitution.
“With respect to the words ‘general welfare’ I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character not contemplated by its creators.”
This expanded role of the federal government can be seen in several recently passed or current congressional bills. Three examples are the so-called stimulus bill, the latest “hate crimes” legislation which was attached to the Defense Bill to help assure passage and the current health care bills before Congress. These three, and countless others passed and signed into law, are clearly beyond the constitutional limits of Congress. This expansion of federal government powers began in earnest during the Great Depression and continues unabated.
When will it end? Only when we demand that our congressmen respect the United States Constitution as written and intended by our Founding Fathers and not as a “living” document; and when we demand that they take seriously their oath of office. This can be done most effectively at the ballot box.