If you thought that the people most in need of help buying health coverage were the working poor, you haven’t been hanging around administration circles. The Bush plan would raise the amount that could be contributed into an HSA to $10,000 a year, a sum even most middle-class families don’t have lying around.
“This is not about health care anymore,” notes Jason Furman, senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. “It’s an excuse for allowing people to put $10,000 away tax-free.”
The center figures that for a family making $180,000, a $1,000 contribution into an HSA would reap a $433 tax subsidy. If that family makes $15,000, the subsidy would total only $153 — and that’s assuming that a tax credit is made refundable. Otherwise, it would be zero.
Demonically, the Bush proposal gives employers new reasons not to offer traditional health coverage, or any medical benefits at all. Indeed, the new health savings accounts could do to the traditional health plan what the 401(k) plan did to the traditional pension: Kill it off.
Guess who the big loser is under Bush health plan (Houston Chronicle)
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