Erik Paulsen: “Just to follow up, there are too many families that continue to suffocate under the high premiums and high deductibles…”

“Just to follow up, there are too many families that continue to suffocate under the high premiums and high deductibles that we have from the Affordable Care Act. In contrast to the top-down, one-size-fits-all approach of ObamaCare, healthcare savings accounts put consumers in charge of their own healthcare. It is no wonder they are gaining in popularity. Today, nearly 22 million Americans have health savings accounts. That is twice as many as was mentioned earlier, twice as many as the number of people who are getting plans through the ObamaCare exchanges. That is not even close. In Minnesota alone, more than a million, 1.2 million, people and families are eligible for HSA plans. Now, the bill before us today supports the continued growth of healthcare savings accounts and includes a couple of provisions that I helped author, including allowing working seniors to contribute to an HSA, increasing the limits that individuals and families can contribute to their HSAs, and allowing married couples the opportunity to make larger catch-up contributions to their own healthcare savings accounts. Then it also creates a grace period to help pay for medical expenses that someone may have incurred before they actually set up their healthcare savings accounts. These are all important improvements that will help provide value in healthcare and help lower prices. So let's let people purchase the type of coverage that they want and that they can afford.…”