Thank You Very Little

Many people have Heath Savings Accounts or HSAs. They’re a very effective way to afford health insurance and, are a staple of small business health plans. If you’re unfamiliar with HSAs, you can see a nice summary here.

As is their wont, the Dims want to end this. Why? They want you to have health insurance only if you buy it from the government. The Wall Street Journal covers it today.

“Democrats have made affordable health care a mainstay of their election agenda, but apparently only if you’re willing to get insurance through the government. Witness their stealthy assault on Americans who prefer the private-sector option of Health Savings Accounts.

This week, the House passed legislation that included a provision to require every HSA transaction be reviewed and verified as a legitimate medical expense. Democrats say this is to ensure that consumers are using their tax-free withdrawals for a knee replacement, rather than a new iPod. In reality it adds a layer of bureaucracy that could sharply reduce the appeal and cost savings of HSAs.

A key player here is Ways and Means Health Subcommittee Chairman Pete Stark, whose main purpose in politics is to give the U.S. a government-run health-care system. He is a known opponent of HSAs – once comparing them to “weapons of mass destruction” – because they introduce more individual choice into the health-care marketplace.”[...]

Honest to God, how do people this stupid keep getting elected? What’s worse, this idiot thinks the Feds are more capable than individual consumers in finding health care that’s best for them.

The WSJ concludes its op-ed with some very good advice.

“Democrats, including Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, decry the high and rising costs of health care, including insurance “overhead.” Mr. Stark and his friends want to impose the same bureaucratic overhead even on spending that consumers do with their own money. The Senate should stop this one dead in its tracks.”

I hope the Senate will stop this one, too but I’m not overly optimistic. The end of HSAs would all but end health care for small businesses. Of course, the goal of the majority party in the Senate is to wipe out all business…corporations, no matter their size, represent pure evil in the eyes of the Dims.