[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 6979]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        MEDICAL SAVINGS ACCOUNTS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Lipinski) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. LIPINSKI. Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight to say a few words about 
medical savings accounts. Unfortunately, medical savings accounts have 
fallen victim to partisan political posturing. That is unfortunate 
because MSAs will insure the uninsured, allow for choice of a doctor, 
and put the health care decisions in the hands of the individual, not a 
managed care administrator.
  Six years ago, along with a dozen of my Democratic colleagues, I 
cosponsored legislation to create medical savings accounts. In fact, 
Democrats were the initial sponsors of MSAs, and MSAs unanimously 
passed the House Committee on Ways and Means in 1994 during the debate 
on the Clinton health care plan. However, after the Republicans took 
over Congress, MSAs became a partisan football that was used to 
polarize the House of Representatives.
  But I want to make medical savings accounts a bipartisan issue once 
again. So the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Archer) and I have introduced 
H.R. 614, the Medical Savings Account Efficiency Act of 1999. This bill 
repeals the 750,000-person cap that was placed on MSAs by the 1996 
Kennedy-Kassebaum Health Insurance Act and it makes medical savings 
accounts permanent, thereby repealing the year 2000 sunset of MSAs.
  Repealing the 750,000 cap is significant in that many insurers have 
been reluctant to offer MSAs because these restrictions limited the 
size of the market in which MSAs could be offered. Therefore, insurers 
will mass market MSAs and make millions of Americans aware of the 
benefits of medical savings accounts.
  By opening up MSAs to all Americans, MSAs would encourage savings for 
health care. By forcing doctors and hospitals to compete for patients 
who are concerned about quality and cost, health care spending will 
slow down. Likewise, MSAs will provide a real incentive to shop around 
for the best values and alternatives when nonemergency treatment is 
needed. The incentive? Consumers will keep the money they save.
  Critics of MSAs claim that this incentive will lead healthy people to 
choose MSAs, leaving sick people in a separate and therefore more 
expensive health insurance pool. But while many healthy people will 
choose to save the money, the sick will also choose MSAs because their 
out-of-pocket cost will be less.
  In addition, MSAs are not just for the wealthy. A GAO study found 
that one-third of all new MSAs are opened by previously uninsured 
individuals.
  These are additional reasons that MSAs are good for the consumer. 
Medical savings accounts will reduce administrative overhead, as small 
bills will be settled and paid directly between provider and consumer. 
They will also increase the record low savings rates of Americans. 
Lastly, MSAs provide an incentive to stay healthy. Preventive medicine 
will be encouraged.
  These are the reasons I supported MSAs back in 1994 when I first 
heard about them, and these are the reasons I support medical savings 
accounts today. So I say to my colleagues, as we wade into health care 
reform in the 106th Congress, include medical savings accounts in any 
health insurance measure that will come out of this Congress because 
medical savings accounts will cut cost, provide choice, promote healthy 
lives, and save money for the consumer. Mr. Speaker, that is the 
epitome of reform.

                          ____________________