The Presidential election is now in full swing and the issue of health insurance accessibility has surfaced as a potent issue.  Magnifying the importance of this issue are reports showing there are more than 44 millions uninsured — and this number is growing. While presidential candidates campaign on various health care proposals, Congress has the opportunity to pass a bipartisan solution that would help insure millions of Americans now.

I’m speaking of Medical Savings Accounts (MSAs).  MSAs are tax-advantaged personal savings accounts that can be used for health care not covered by insurance, including deductibles and co-payments.  MSAs allow consumers to save tax-free money to cover health care costs.  This allows individuals to have direct control of medical expenditures and the freedom to see the doctor of their choice.

Congress passed, and the President enacted into law an MSA pilot program in 1996.  Numbers released by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) confirm MSAs are insuring the uninsured at an astounding rate.  According to the IRS, since the program began, 32 percent (one-third) of MSA purchasers were previously uninsured. For the first half of 1999, that number rose to 42 percent. This is in spite of restrictions placed on the pilot program.  As of now, you can only get an MSA if you work for a company with 50 or fewer employees or if you are self-employed.

As part of this year's health care debate, both houses of Congress have passed bills that lift the onerous restrictions on MSAs and made them effectively available to all Americans. The expanded MSA program lowers the deductibles from $2000 down to $1000 for individuals, and from $3000 down to $2000 for families. This will make MSA policies even more attractive to uninsured Americans and will give insurance brokers even more incentive to sell these policies to get these folks covered.

MSAs especially have been a help to single parents, the self-employed, small businesses and their employees as well as working families. Critics of MSAs have said they are only good for rich people. But the popularity of MSAs with so many thousands of uninsured people completely rebukes that argument.

It's been seven years since the first Medical Savings Account bill was introduced – with bipartisan support – into the United States Congress. MSAs are the future of American health care. With 44 million uninsured Americans, Congress should act now to expand accessibility to MSAs to all Americans.

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