Health Savings Account Blog

Californians should be outraged that their insurance commissioner is spending millions of their tax dollars in a PR campaign to promote his biased political view, with no attempt to present a balanced report. But apparently, Mr. Garamendi sees no problem with spending your tax money. In fact, he’d love to spend much more of it.

In his report, he complains that consumers will save about $7 billion in taxes by placing tax-deferred money into Health Savings Accounts. This is money that individuals can choose to spend on their own healthcare expenses, in any way they choose. They may go to a chiropractor, or a naturopath, they can shop the market, and find the best value for the service they’re looking for. If they stay healthy, they’ll then still have that money, to spend on whatever they want.

Garamendi believes the government can spend this money “more effectively” than you can. Isn’t there a punch line to a joke that goes something like “We’re from the government, and we’re here to help”?

His report claims that HSAs will benefit only the wealthy. An individual can shelter up to $2,600 per year in a Health Savings Account. This can be a nice tax break – perhaps up to $800 or so. That may be enough to cut the cost of one’s healthcare by a third or more, but its certainly not enough to get Donald Trump and Martha Stewart rushing to put their money into HSAs.

Interestingly, in a different section he then claims that many people with HSAs “are likely to forego necessary treatment”, because of the high deductibles that these plans carry. Are these the same wealthy people he was talking about who will be the only beneficiaries of these plans?

I’ve probably got more to say about this ridiculous report. Stay tuned... and let me know if you agree.