You’ll Need a Doctor’s Note to Dull the Pain in the Ass Caused by ObamaCare
11th October 2010
Nick Gillespie is outraged.
Thanks, President Obama, you’ve chiseled down one of the few things that has helped to force doctors and patients to discuss pricing in medicine. For those of you not familiar with MSAs, participants park money in a tax-free account that is used to pay out of pocket medical costs. Insurers typically issue a charge card that allows users to pay for all health-care-related spending – office co-pays, prescriptions, basically any out of pocket cost. While I’m no fan of giving preference to one sort of spending over another (why is health care sacralized?), the system works swell all the way around partly because it allows users to keep track of costs and balances. And it lets users roll over unused money from one year to another, creating a potential pile of cash that can be used as you age and need more health care.
I have a Health Savings Account with a high-deductible plan, and I can testify that it makes you very very conscious of the prices of drugs, and very proactive about finding ways to reduce that cost.