Medical Savings Accounts May Soon Be Available To All Americans
WASHINGTON (March 1, 2000) – The health care conference committee will begin marking up the patient bill of rights and health care access bill this week. As part of this package, Congress is seeking to make Medical Savings Accounts (MSAs) universally available.
In 1996, Congress created a demonstration project for Medical Savings Accounts (MSAs), implementing for the first time an idea popularized by National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPASM) President John C. Goodman in his book Patient Power. The pilot program permitted small employers and the self-employed to establish tax-free MSAs.
"MSAs transfer power and money from large and impersonal bureaucracies to individual people," said Goodman, also known as the "father of MSAs."
Goodman will be in Washington, D.C., on Friday, March 3, and will be available to discuss the MSA reform proposals. Goodman will also be available to discuss the many proposals before Congress to create tax credits for the uninsured, including the Jeffords-Frist bill, which gain their inspiration from "Reforming the U.S. Health Care System," a ground-breaking NCPA study on the possibilities of tax credits.
WHO: WHAT: Analysis of MSA and Health Insurance Reform
WHEN: Friday, March 3 — INTERVIEWS BY REQUEST
WHERE: NCPA's Washington Office, 202-220-3082
Many of the reforms the conferees are considering to fix the original MSA legislation were proposed in a brief analysis released by the NCPA last summer.