Paul Ryan: “Mr. Speaker, I just heard the ranking member say this is not a health bill, that this is a tax shelter. I beg to differ.…”

“Mr. Speaker, I just heard the ranking member say this is not a health bill, that this is a tax shelter. I beg to differ. Number one, what we are talking about here is really novel and revolutionary. We are saying that employers and employees can together contribute to their own savings account with pre-tax dollars, with tax-deductible dollars to purchase health care spending and to have a catastrophic plan. The gentleman from New York said, what about the people who do not have $4,000 to put in their health security savings account? Well, their employer can put $4,000 into their account. The purpose of this reform, Mr. Speaker, is to get at some of the big issues that are really hurting this country, and that is the cost of health insurance, the affordability, and the accessibility of health insurance. So what this reform does is it equips the individual in the family with the ability to go out into the health care marketplace with tax-deductible dollars to act like good consumers and buy their health insurance.”