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INSURERS SCHEME TO LOSE BUSINESS?
January 27, 2006
Senator Durbin is criticizing the Administration's forthcoming proposal to expand health savings accounts. Tax Analysts ($) reports:
Durbin described HSAs as "another special-interest project for insurers disguised as a plan for covering the uninsured," and Pelosi said the accounts demonstrate "a continuing effort on the part of the Bush administration to leave more Americans to fend for themselves."
HSAs were created to allow taxpayers with high-deductible health insurance to establish tax-free accounts for medical expenses, and President Bush has previously stated that he will continue to push Congress to make HSAs "more attractive, more portable, more individualized."
However, Durbin cited a study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that he said concluded that the president's proposed expansion of HSAs "would actually increase the number of uninsured Americans by 350,000 and cost taxpayers $25 billion."
So it's a "special interest project for insurers" that will chase away 350,000 of their customers. If so, the insurance industry is both evil and insane. Somebody better tell the regulators...
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Comments
Well, I'm not so sure that they're "both evil and insane," but I have manintained for a long time that:
* Not all insurance companies are run by idiots. Some are run by morons. *
And I stand by that statement. What's so ironic here is that, despite all the hype and hoopla, HSA's (of which, BTW, I am a staunch supporter) have made barely a dent in the marketplace for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is pricing.
And that's something even President Bush can't do much about.
Posted by: hgstern | January 27, 2006 10:09 PM