New Rules Coming for Payments Out of Health Savings Accounts

FoxNews.com ^ | October 15, 2010 | Fox News

[ColdOne]

Under the new health care law, consumers using workplace pre-tax health savings accounts will soon need a doctor's note to pay for Tylenol and an estimated 15,000 other over-the-counter drugs.

[VeniVidiVici]

The tone of your question to me suggests that you think this scenario is so very impossible that condescension is necessary.

Sorry. My mistake. I thought you were taking this in a completely different direction.

[1010RD]

Come on, new rules every week are making life better.

They hate the free market and do all they can to insure its failure. Then their capon media spins the story to make it seem like liberty is harmful to your health.

Mmmmmm, more government.

[dinodino]

I don’t have enough bad words to say about Obama and his crowd. The HSA was the best thing going (thank you, President Bush!) and now this miserable shower of f***wits have killed it in their zeal for Communist healthcare.

I can’t wait for November.

[GailA]

AMMO LIST

DEMOCRATS WAR ON SENIORS AND BUSINESS

How ObamaCare Guts Medicare
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703649004575437311393854940.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEFTTopOpinion

Health law’s heavy impact by Paul Guppy (Taxes)
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2010/mar/28/health-laws-heavy-impact/

Monthly premiums to rise for 7 of top 10 Medicare prescription plans in 2011
http://www.startribune.com/business/103642009.html?elr=KArks:DCiU1OiP:DiiUiacyKUnciatkEP7DhUr

Social Security: No 2011 increase expected (COLA)
http://money.cnn.com/2010/10/05/news/economy/Social_Security_cost_of_living_adjustment/index.htm

No Social Security COLA Expected For 2011 News Expected To Be Bad For Democrats
http://www.kptv.com/politics/25344443/detail.html

They forgot to add this to the “Rest of the Story”

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2010/jan/22/chain-email/chain-e-mail-says-congress-raised-own-salaries-whi/

Shall we wait to see how the media and the establishment Pubbies handle this one?

Harvard Pilgrim cancels Medicare Advantage plan
http://www.boston.com/business/healthcare/articles/2010/09/28/harvard_pilgrim_

Seniors’ coverage options dwindle as Medicare Advantage programs close shop
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/DN-advantage_22bus.ART.State.Edition1.3c912a9.html

Survey in New England Journal of Medicine 46% of US Doctors Will Quit Obamacare Passes http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2798380/shocking_survey_in_new_england_journal.html?cat=75

ObamaCare has just made me Sicker!
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/bamcare_has_just_made_me_icker_c1dBRZ6M3yuH27rAVnLsvN

In the notice, EmblemHealth told Gowland, who is healthy, “The proposed rate increase includes two components: a basic increase on your type plan and an increase due to the cost of enhanced benefits required by the new federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.”

Mayo clinic stops taking Medicare patients
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=517004

Principal To Cut Jobs, End Med Insurance Business
http://www.kcci.com/money/25224059/detail.html

Obama: We knew health costs would go up
http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/health-reform-implementation/118079-obama-we-knew-health-costs-would-go-up

President Barack Obama insisted he can overhaul the U.S. healthcare system without raising taxes for anyone but the wealthiest Americans

The New Federal Wedding Tax: How Obamacare Would Dramatically Penalize Marriage
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2010/01/The-New-Federal-Wedding-Tax-How-Obamacare-Would-Dramatically-Penalize-Marriage

............................................................

1099: The Trojan Horse within Obamacare
http://palmettoinsider.com/2010/09/21/1099-the-trojan-horse-within-obamacare/

Repeal Obamacare: Small-Business Killer
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=38496

Senate Expands IRS Form 1099 Reporting Requirement to Include All Rental Property Owner
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/75911

Paperwork nightmare: New 1099 mandate must be repealed
http://billingsgazette.com/news/opinion/guest/article_61e61666-bbc1-11df-b2c3-001cc4c002e0.html

Health care law’s massive, hidden tax change( 1099’s)
http://money.cnn.com/2010/05/05/smallbusiness/1099_health_care_tax_change/index.htm

Lost in Taxation, The IRS’s vast new ObamaCare powers.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704518904575365223062942574.html?mod=rss_opinion_main

[hondact200]

Ronald Reagan staed this Hi I am from the Government and I am here to help. The most feared words in America. The government striving to help only makes more costly and ineffective. Thanks Obummer my health savings account will be wiped away just in medical visits for over the counter medications. obummercare - the way to kill America is excessive governmental regulation (government control)

[Down South P.E.]

You are exactly correct. My wife and I have 6 children. They rarely go to the Doctor because (thank the Lord) they are all in good health.

But we eat up a lot of OTC stuff for bumps, bruises, colds, fevers, etc. (just as you outlined). As I told someone in the office the other day we don't get a sick child, we get an epidemic. One gets a cold or virus and they go like dominos.

And I didn't even know there was a dental plan that still existed that covered braces. Shoot the regular dental plans are really only partial plans. They don't cover things completely. Same with vision. And I was planning to use the FSA to pay for braces ... which is on the horizon. Still got to buy the braces, except now I get to pay taxes on that medical expense instead of pulling from an FSA.

All that said, what this really amounts to is a TAX INCREASE (and I make way less than 250K a year). They cut in half what I can contribute of my money to the plan. I will still spend the same amount on medical expenses (actually more as they get older). The difference is that I will now pay increased payroll taxes on the half I cannot now put in the FSA but still spend on medical stuff.

Someone explain to me how that is not a TAX INCREASE!!! I wasn't paying taxes on that money before (except sales tax). But now I am.

[prairiebreeze]

I had a pre-tax account years ago as you describe, use it or lose it. Our HSA’s now though, can be continued into the next year, like a bank account.

I already went and stocked up on bandaids, dressings, etc. because I knew this was coming. (Those have no expiration dates either)

Looks like I’ll be stocking up at least on some things that do have expirations dates. Freakin’ g-d gubmint!!!

[SunkenCiv]

Obamacare, courtesy of the so-called and self-described Democratic Party.

Thanks ColdOne.

[metmom]

How much Tylenol, ASA, Bendadryl, etc. can one person use in a year? If you need exorbitant amounts, you’d better get to the doctor because something is wrong. Someone please explain what the big deal is about this. Or am I missing something?

Because, noob, it's not the government's place to dictate to us how to spend our money, nor manage our healthcare, nor any other aspect of our lives.

You are definitely missing something...... big time.

What are you doing on FR?

[rabscuttle385]

The wording in the article is deceptive and misleading.

The change applies to Health Care Flexible Spending Accounts, offered as part of the benefits package by many employers. FSAs operate on a use-it-or-lose-it proposition; whatever you don't spend at the end of the tax year is forfeited.

However, the article tags Health Savings Accounts, special tax-advantaged savings accounts that must be used in conjunction with High Deductible Health Plans, or HDHPs. You do not have to work for an employer that offers an HSA/HDHP combination. You can buy your own HDHP insurance plan (essentially catastrophic insurance) and open an HSA at any financial institution that offers HSAs.

I do know the new regulations affect Health Care FSAs offered through employers, but I do not know if they affect HSAs attached to HDHPs. And don't get me started on hybrid plans offered by some employers that include HRAs.

[GRRRRR]

I posted this FOX NEWS article on the well known social networking site, FaceBook.

I have some LibTard friends, sorry can't help it.

Here's what they responded with in regards to this article.

"That's not accurate, GRRRRR. Consider the source, Fox news. More like "views" than news. I don't trust any of the cable "news" networks including MSNBC which is way too far left, nor Fox in the other direction. Whatever happened to Walter Kronkite, Huntley/Brinkley or Douglas Edwards? Remember the good ole days when news was actually reported, not distorted?

AND

Believe half of what you see and nothing of what you hear, GRRRRR.

Notice how they don't debate the FACTS in the story, but rather attack because the info comes from FOX. Actually, the source of the information is the freakin' IRS!! LibTards...unbelievably ignorant and intellectually dishonest...don't believe something because it comes from FOX...

[ColdOne]

Notice how they don't debate the FACTS in the story, but rather attack because the info comes from FOX. Actually, the source of the information is the freakin' IRS!! LibTards...unbelievably ignorant and intellectually dishonest...don't believe something because it comes from FOX... I am glad you posted this. It is another eye opener for me. I saw another post somewhere they did not believe it either. I would like to see the faces of these people when it hits them.

[Think free or die]

"I didn't even know there was a dental plan that still existed that covered braces."

We have had one, but it has a lifetime maximum of $2,000 per child, which covered stage 1 orthodontia and a little bit of stage 2 for each son. After that, we've been on our own. My husband's employer has offered a basic and a premium dental plan in recent years. We carefully calculated whether the higher premiums paid off in terms of their orthodontia. For other dental care, it usually doesn't for us.