Medical Savings Account in the near future?

[ThePieSwindler]

It appears the Bush administration is making a push for a medical savings account, tied in with tax free benefits, and mobility from job to job.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/healthcare/

As much as i and many others despise bush for expanding government, the war on terror,iraq, the PATRIOT act, running up the debt to record levels, and the millions of other little things they have either fucked up or done with malice, i have to give dubya his due on this one, if i'm reading the proposals correctly. Medical savings account it one thing Ron Paul also supports as one of the methods for giving people more health free and to strengthen health care.

I still want to impeach him. Cheney first, however.

[Bradley in DC]

I have one, I like it.

Here's a good group on the issue:

Consumers for Health Care Choices
Press Release


CHCC Joins Heath Care Freedom Coalition
Announces Agenda at Press Conference
Hagerstown, MD, July 18, 2007 Consumers for Health Care Choices has joined with twenty-five other organizations to form a new "Health Care Freedom Coalition." The new group announced its freedom agenda at a press conference on Tuesday at the Canon House Office Building in Washington, DC.

Congressman Mike Pence (R-IN) was on hand to welcome the group and applaud the push for health care reform based on free markets rather than top-down, expanded government programs. He said there are 110 Members of Congress "ready to hit the airwaves" in support of the Freedom Agenda.

Merrill Matthews, of the Council for Affordable Health Insurance, welcomed the reporters in attendance and introduced the other speakers, which included --

Roberto de Posada, Latino Coalition
Matt Kibbe, FreedomWorks
Jim Martin, 60 Plus
Grover Norquist, Americans for Tax Reform
Greg Scandlen, Consumers for Health Care Choices
Pete Sepp, National Taxpayers Union
The Coalition's Statement of principles said, "We, the Health Care Freedom Coalition, believe the solution to the nation's health care problems is to make health care affordable for all Americans through a competitive, open, and transparent health care system where America's families choose their own doctor and health care plans."

The statement went on to say that any comprehensive reform proposal should include the following --

Free Choice of Doctors, Hospitals, and Health Plans
HSAs Option for all Americans
Tax Fairness and Simplification
Affordable Health Insurance for Small Business
Buying Health Insurance Across State Lines
Health Care Price Disclosure
High Risk Pools for People Who Are Sick
Convert DSH Payments into Health Insurance Block Grants
Allow nonprofit, faith-based alternatives for health insurance
More competition between facilities
The statement explains each of these ideas in more detail and also warns of things that should be avoided. The complete statement is available at CAHI's web site.

The organizations that have endorsed the statement to date include --

60 Plus
Alabama Policy Institute
American Conservative Union
American Shareholders Association
Americans for Prosperity and AFP Foundation
Americans for Tax Reform
Center for Freedom and Prosperity
Christus Medicus Foundation
Commonwealth Foundation for Public Policy Alternatives
Consumers for Health Care Choices
Council for Affordable Health Insurance
Fairness Foundation
FreedomWorks
Grassroot Institute of Hawaii
Illinois Policy Institute
Indiana Family Institute
Medical Savings Insurance Company
Mississippi Center for Public Policy
National Center for Policy Analysis
National Taxpayers Union
Pacific Research Institute
Public Interest Institute
Rio Grande Foundation
Small Business Entrepreneurship Council
The James Madison Institute
Washington Policy Institute
Other organizations are welcomed to sign-on to the statement, and additional names will be added over the coming months. If your organization would like to endorse the statement of principls, please contact either:
Brian McManus
brianfmcmanus@yahoo.com
or
Greg Scandlen
greg@chcchoices.org

About Consumers for Health Care Choices
Consumers for Health Care Choices is a national membership organization of citizens devoted to putting the consumer in the driver’s seat of the health care system. It was organized just over one year ago and is growing quickly as more people realize the future of health care rests with empowered consumers. The Board Chair is Daniel (Stormy) Johnson, Jr., MD, a radiologist in Metairie, Louisiana, and former president of the American Medical Association.

Website: http://www.chcchoices.org

Consumers for Health Care Choices
Greg Scandlen
President
email: greg@chcchoices.org
phone: 301-606-7364

[ThePieSwindler]

What do you think of the white house's proposal? Speak objectively (i know its hard to do when discussing bush but try!).