Dear Chairman Brady:
On behalf of National Taxpayers Union (NTU), I write to applaud your ongoing efforts to protect patients and taxpayers from the disastrous Affordable Care Act (ACA). Today’s markup of numerous bills that address several problems both within ACA and our broader health care programs, is an important step toward the long term goal of increasing patient choice and enabling access to high quality, affordable treatment options.
Despite past failures on the part of Congress to fully repeal ACA, NTU strongly supports moving forward with other reforms that will help taxpayers and consumers. With health insurance premiums for 2019 expected to once again sky-rocket, along with increased deductibles and vanishing health insurance options in many areas of the country, Congress should take every opportunity to reduce the harm imposed by ACA.
To that end, NTU is pleased to endorse legislation that would expand and improve health savings accounts (HSAs). Since they were established by law in 2003, HSAs have helped to empower consumers to make decisions about their health care expenditures. HSAs stand in exemplary contrast to the overall trend we have seen in the health care sector, whereby policymakers have increasingly given authority to government bureaucrats.
Legislation under consideration today would make HSAs more widely available, allow Medicare recipients to participate in HSAs, increase contribution limits, remove restrictions on the purchase of over-the-counter products and other health-related products, permit the use of funds to pay for premiums, and provide greater flexibility in minimum deductible requirements for high deductible plans. In addition, NTU supports H.R. 4616, which would suspend the job-killing employer mandate and delay implementation of the so-called “Cadillac” tax on certain health insurance plans. We also endorse the approach in H.R. 6311, which would permit premium assistance tax credit recipients to purchase catastrophic or other plans outside the Exchange that might better suit their needs.
Together, the changes in these bills would reduce the cost of health care, give consumers more control over health care decisions, and provide many individuals with a significant reduction on their tax liability. Each component is essential to achieving the market-oriented reforms consumers so urgently need.
Sincerely,
Nan Swift
Director of Federal Affairs