Matt Salmon: “I rise to strongly endorse this rule. I would like to talk about one particular component of the piece of legislation…”

“I rise to strongly endorse this rule. I would like to talk about one particular component of the piece of legislation that is exposed in the rule, and that is medical savings accounts. It truly is an idea whose time has come. Let us face the facts. Those on the other side had more confidence in bureaucracy and the heavy-handed government than they do in individuals. In fact, they do not want to give individuals these kinds of choices because they believe that Washington knows better what their needs are than they know what their own needs are for themselves. Medical savings accounts are being demanded by people out there. In fact, there are some 3,000 companies who are already offering medical savings accounts. Mr. Speaker, the only problem is our tax policy is discriminatory. It does not give the same kind of tax advantage to people wanting to establish medical savings accounts as it does to those companies providing premium coverage for traditional health care. Despite the charges of the opponents, MSA's are great for sick people and for the less well off. Why? Because you get first-dollar coverage. It astounds me the arguments that the other side has used against medical savings accounts saying that only healthy people would flock to them. Why? When you have a high deductible health care policy that kicks in when your medical savings account ends, you are going to get first-dollar coverage, and sick people would want it as well as healthy people.”