Health Savings Accounts (HSAs)

 –Another Step on the Road to Chronic Underinsurance for Most Americans

         –Another Tax Break for the Wealthy

HSAs are tax shelters masquerading as help for small business and the uninsured.        

HSAs should really be called Shoulder More of the Burden Accounts (SMBAs)

“The HSA provision in the final Medicare conference agreement should be seen for what it is – part of a larger conservative agenda to shield saving and investment from taxation,
a policy shift that would predominantly benefit those who have high incomes or substantial wealth, while starving the federal budget to an even greater degree of revenue it will sorely need in future decades.”
                        –Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

·HSAs do not help bring down health care costs. 

   HSAs shift even more of the health care costs to individual people and away from    

   comprehensive group coverage.  All Americans deserve affordable, high-quality

   health care.  HSAs take Florida and America in the wrong direction!         -USAction

·HSAs do not help seniors and people with disabilities. 

   The New Medicare Rx Drug Law provides $7 billion to subsidize tax breaks for HSAs,

   yet Medicare beneficiaries are not eligible for these double-ended tax shelters.

 Does this make sense to you?                             -FamiliesUSA                                                                  –

·HSAs will increase out-of-pocket costs for workers.

   Workers who want to keep comprehensive coverage could see their premiums more   

    than double as those seeking tax write-offs or who are willing to accept less coverage    

    “buy in” to  high-deductible policies with HSAs.    

                                                      -Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, RAND, the Urban Institute,
                                               and the American Academy of Actuaries

·HSAs do not help most uninsured people; in fact
   -36% of the uninsured will get no help at all from HSAs 

               -80% of the uninsured live in families with at least one working member, 

               -65% of uninsured people live on incomes below 200% of the federal poverty level. 
                         For these families setting aside almost $9,000 a year to pay for health insurance

                         is not an economic possibility.  Small tax deductions from HSAs do not make health
                         insurance more affordable for these hard working people.    –Families USA

   HSAs Take Most Americans Down the Wrong Road!

HSAs only benefit those who: 1) buy high-deductible health insurance policies,

 2) can afford to set money aside into an HSA, and 3) need a tax write-off.

  HSAs are Another Step on the Road to Chronic Underinsurance

Except for the United States, all other industrialized countries in the world have figured out how to

 provide for the health care needs of all their people. 

   Americans Deserve Real Help with the High Cost of Health Care and Prescription Drugs

   The place to begin is not with Rx drug “discount” card gimmicks and HSA tax shelters, but with

a Real Prescription Drug Program in Medicare

that covers all seniors and people with disabilities for all needed Rx drugs.

For more information please contact:   Florida Consumer Action Network Foundation    813/877-6712    www.fcan.org

       For more information on HSAs visit:  www.familiesusa.org    www.cbpp.org    www.protectyourhealthcare.org