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Jul 21, 2009
The Ways & Means Committee document released last week would no longer allow Americans to pay for over-the-counter drug purchases using tax-free dollars from a health savings account (HSA), health reimbursement arrangement (HRA), flexible spending account (FSA), or Archer medical savings account (MSA).
4 Responses to “Taxing the Sick”
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Helium
July 21st, 2009 at 9:48 am
If this is Congress’ way of financing health reform, it seems rather petty and misguided. Hundreds of OTC drugs were once available only by prescription. Over-the-counter drugs cost about 90 percent less than comparable prescription drugs. Anything Congress does to inhibit the purchase of OTC drugs — or reduce the likelihood of self-care — will result in correspondingly higher-cost physician care and prescription drugs.
July 21st, 2009 at 10:42 am
Does this mean the feds will also stop paying for over-the-counter meds for people without HSAs? It pays the Medicaid match for payments for OTC drugs in a number of states, and for OTC drugs in the VA formulary. The VA formulary includes OTC drugs like aspirin and A&D ointment.
Simple fairness means that if an OTC drug is important enough to be listed in the VA formulary, it should be important enough to be an allowable HSA expenditure.
July 21st, 2009 at 12:49 pm
It’s penny wise and pound foolish. OTC drugs are generally cheaper than other drugs. They help lower the cost of health care.
July 21st, 2009 at 10:39 pm
I think of HSA’s as a sort of Band-Aid (albeit an effective one) to an extremely bad tax policy. So my primary concern still has to be to fix the tax system itself.