Xavier Becerra: “First, flexible spending accounts, most people who have insurance, health insurance through an employer, are eligible…”

“First, flexible spending accounts, most people who have insurance, health insurance through an employer, are eligible to, pretax, ahead of time, declare how much they think they are going to spend out of pocket that will not be reimbursed by their employer's health plan. That way, you are using money that has not yet been taxed to pay for some of these services, a copayment that you may have for a service that you receive, or vision or dental benefits that are not covered completely under your health care plan where you pay out of pocket. Those out-of-pocket costs, if you have a flexible spending account and you bank money in that account at the beginning, you can then use that money, you can bring down the account, and use that money, pre-tax, to pay for your out-of-pocket costs for your health services that are not covered by your employer's health care plan. A great idea, pretax dollars to pay for health care services. That is fine. Then the notion under the current law, that if you have money in that account and you do not spend it down through your out-of-pocket expenditures to reimburse yourself for those out-of-pocket expenditures, by the end of the year anything left over you lose.”