Health Care
I favor passing legislation that would allow individuals to have a Medical Savings Account (MSA). The MSA would be a tax-free personal account used to pay medical bills not covered by insurance. Employers or individuals who purchase their own insurance take the money that they presently spend on health insurance and redistribute it. Instead of buying a low dollar deductible policy for employees, employers or employees would be able to buy high deductible catastrophic policies and invest the savings into an MSA to be used for paying small medical bills, while still having catastrophic insurance for the larger bills.
The average employer-provided family plan now costs about $4,500. That plan has a relatively low deductible. The catastrophic plan that covers medical expenses above $3,000 costs about $1,500 for a family plan. The difference in cost ($3,000) could be placed in an MSA to use for medical care or to save. This would eliminate the “use it or lose it” mentality.
Advantages of an MSA:
- It would trigger price competition in the medical community.
- Employers who cannot afford low deductible insurance plans for their employees many times can afford the high deductible catastrophic policies. This applies to individuals as well.
- Administrative costs (currently 20 percent of all health care dollars) would decrease, as individuals would be paying their smaller medical bills themselves, out of their MSA.
- An MSA is completely portable, staying with the individual even after job loss.
- MSA patients retain their right to select their own doctors and would have the flexibility to purchase preventative health care.
