    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2007, Book I)]
    [April 2, 2007]
    [Pages 375-376]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks Following a Meeting on Health Savings Accounts
    April 2, 2007

        The cornerstone of good health care policy is to make sure that
    patients and docs are in charge of medical decisions. And therefore, one
    of the objectives of this administration has been to encourage the
    expansion of products like health savings accounts. And today I have met
    with some small-business owners, some employees of companies that have
    provided health savings accounts for them.
        And I'm pleased to report that people have come to realize the
    benefits of health savings accounts, such as, one, health savings
    accounts are affordable for individuals and small businesses. In other
    words, if you're a small-business owner and you're worried about
    providing good health care for your employees, you ought to look into a
    health savings account as a way to provide that benefit to your
    employees.
        Secondly, health savings accounts enable a person to save, tax free,
    for medical expenses. By making rational decisions about your life,
    you'll end up with more money in your health savings account, on a tax-
    free basis.
        And thirdly, that savings account is something you can carry with
    you from job to job. A lot of people in America change jobs on a regular
    basis, and they are deeply concerned about whether or not they'll have a
    health care plan when they change jobs. And the health savings account
    enables you to carry your money that you've saved, on a tax-free basis,
    from one job to the next.
        You know, 2 years ago there was--about a million of our citizens had
    health savings accounts. And today, over 5 million of people have health
    savings accounts--or nearly 5 million people have health savings
    accounts. It's up--actually, you can see from the chart the growth--4.5
    million people. And that's a 43-percent increase, from last year to this
    year, in the number of people that are beginning to realize the benefits
    of health savings accounts.
        And interestingly enough, of those who purchased--of individuals who
    purchased health savings accounts, about 25 percent of them were
    uninsured. In other words, health savings accounts enable someone who is
    uninsured to realize the benefits of private insurance, and in an
    affordable way.
        I strongly believe that the United States Congress needs to
    strengthen health savings accounts, just like they need to make sure
    that the Tax Code treats every person in America fairly. And that's why
    I've suggested we change the Tax Code to enable the small-business
    owner, the self-employed, or the individual worker to be able to have
    more affordable insurance. There's a lot we can do together to empower
    the individual in this country to be in charge of his or her health care
    decisions.
        So I want to thank my fellow Americans for joining us. I really
    appreciated the discussion we had. We've got people from Minnesota and
    Texas and Georgia and

    [[Page 376]]

    Michigan. These are people who are beginning to realize the benefits of
    health savings, and I thank you for sharing your information with me.
    Thank you.

    Note: The President spoke at 11:24 a.m. in the Roosevelt Room at the
    White House. The Office of the Press Secretary also released a Spanish
    language transcript of these remarks.