Angie Craig: “this letter outlines many of the beneficial aspects of MSA's, or medical savings accounts, in addition. I found it quite…”

“this letter outlines many of the beneficial aspects of MSA's, or medical savings accounts, in addition. I found it quite interesting that as part of his pension simplification proposal, President Clinton would allow withdrawals from individual retirement accounts for catastrophic health care insurance needs. That is a great idea. But that is an MSA. Whether Bill Clinton knew it or not, by his endorsement of this approach, he has, in effect, endorsed medical savings accounts, and I applaud him for doing so. Since the healthy-and-wealthy assertions have been made, I want to take a moment to address this issue, because it is phony, phony, phony. Anyone who has experienced chronic health problems or a catastrophic illness realizes how difficult it is to cover out-of-pocket expenses. If that health care problem is not covered by insurance, you get no assistance in helping finance the cost incurred. We have people who have minimal coverage and are making limited incomes, and they cannot afford the out-of-pocket costs to get across the deductible threshold to get the benefits of their insurance, in many instances. For families and individuals on fixed incomes, this is especially problematic. I had a constituent who expressed to me a frustration that even though she had great health care insurance, it did not provide comprehensive dental benefits. She needed to get a tooth capped, which would cost her at least $500 out of pocket.”