The bête noire of the nanny state liberal is the autonomous citizen making her own decisions without interference from the government. Thus, congressional Democrats intend to throttle consumer-driven health care in the cradle. This policy brief from the RSC explains how they plan to do it:
Democrats are considering requiring “substantiation” of all HSA transactions from an independent third party …This oversight of every single account transaction would make HSAs similar to Flexible Spending Arrangements (FSAs).
What’s so bad about that?
One of the prime differences between the two account-based models lies in the control source for the funds in the account. The Internal Revenue Code makes clear that FSA accounts are held by employers, while HSA funds remain exclusively the property of the employee.
In other words, the Democrat plan would seriously restrict the ability of consumers to control the money in their own health savings accounts. An HSA modeled on the FSA would require that the patient pay for a covered service, then go hat-in-hand to the plan administrator for reimbursement—-from her own money.
Obviously, very few sensible people will be willing to participate in such an idiotic scheme, and this is precisely what the Democrats want. Nothing makes them more nervous than empowered health care consumers making their own decisions. Such people might learn that they don’t need the nanny state.
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