Mark Kennedy: “I would just compare this to how you get your auto insurance. When you buy auto insurance, your auto insurance does not…”

“I would just compare this to how you get your auto insurance. When you buy auto insurance, your auto insurance does not cover filling up with gas. It does not cover the oil change. It does not cover the car wash. It does not cover a whole lot of things. It covers when you have a major accident and you have a major expenditure, and because of that car insurance, although when you have four teenagers like myself it can be pretty steep, it still has not had the type of increases that we have seen in health care. We need to have a similar type of approach with what the health savings accounts provide which is basically saying we have catastrophic coverage. You and your employer, either one of you, or your family members, can contribute to the health savings account. You are going to spend those dollars. You are going to shop for the cheapest place for nonemergency service for health care, just like you would shop for the cheapest place for gas which, oh, by the way, if we got this energy bill passed, as my colleague mentioned, would be lower, and this is the type of thing that we need do. I would just say that one of the things we are doing this week is loosening up the restrictions on flexible savings accounts, and flexible savings accounts are similar to a health savings account, but they are employer offered. They allow cafeteria plans, put in their pretax, but they are not really used because it is a use it or lose it.”