Health Insurance Daily

Proposed HSA Changes Could Boost Adoption, White House Advisor Says

HSAs are "a high priority for President Bush," and the White House has urged members of Congress to consider ways to make them even more attractive to employers and health care consumers, according to Roy Ramthun, senior health policy advisor to the White House National Economic Council.

Recent proposals from the Bush administration, he said, would allow individuals who don't get health insurance through an employer to take a tax deduction for high-deductible health plan (HDHP) premiums.

The White House also has urged members of Congress to boost the maximum HSA contribution limit so that it parallels the maximum out-of-pocket limit for the HDHP.

Annual HSA contributions currently cannot exceed the HDHP deductible. "Those very simple changes would make this market take off even faster," he told attendees at HSA 2005, a conference hosted by Business Capital Edge in Chicago.

Ramthun said that "he could envision" that Congress might some day allow a one-time conversion of notional health reimbursement arrangement (HRA) dollars into real HSA dollars.

For a closer look at other topics that Ramthun addressed, click on Consumer Directed Care.

posted by Mike @ 2:00 PM