Last night I was just minding my own business and all of a sudden some freaky stuff happened. Luckily I caught it all on video for your viewing pleasure. I seriously thought I was a goner for a minute there. If you haven’t watched the video yet, DO IT NOW. The rest of this post won’t make any sense if you read it now. Plus, it will kind of give away the surprise ending. So stop reading and start watching. Then come back here when you’re done.
So, the really scary thing here are the increased taxes that me and everyone else in America will have to pay due to this change in how we are allowed to spend our HSA or FSA dollars. An HSA (Health Savings Account) or FSA (Flex Spending Account) can be used to save money for medical expenses because money in one of these accounts is never taxed as long as it is spent on qualified medical expenses. Money in an HSA can be saved year over year, but this account can only be opened by someone with a high deductible insurance plan. An FSA has the same benefits, but all the money in an FSA must be spent in that tax year or else the money is lost.
Today (in 2010) anyone can use these accounts to buy over-the-counter medicine such as headache medicine (Excedrin), pain relievers (Advil, Aleve), bandages (Band-Aids) and lots of other stuff without needing a prescription from your doctor. Last year I bought a knee brace after I hurt myself playing Ultimate Frisbee and I used my HSA; basically it was 25% off because of the tax money I was saving, and knowing I had a 25% discount seriously helped me to buck up and pay for the brace (what can I say, I’m Cheap).
Starting in 2011, thanks to Obamacare, none of this over the counter medication will be eligible without a doctor’s prescription. This legislation that was supposed to help decrease health costs is now forcing us to either pay to see a doctor and get a prescription for over-the-counter health care purchases, or buy this stuff without the benefit of the tax advantaged accounts. This really grinds my gears for two reasons:
- Most importantly, it tells me that the government doesn’t believe I am smart enough to self-medicate. Seems like this administration is trying to tell me that “only your doctor knows if you really have a headache.” Is this some kind of bad joke? I don’t need a doctor to tell me when I need to take an Ibuprofen; I’m smart enough to figure that out, thank you. It doesn’t matter whether people are paying to see their doctor and get a doctor’s note (which sounds like elementary school crap) or buying the stuff without using the HSA/FSA; either way this makes health care more expensive for Americans with those accounts.
- It makes FSAs useless for many people. With the FSA, if you don’t use it, you lose it (just like in 40-Year old Virgin). In the past, if you put money in an FSA and December rolled around and you still had some left to spend, you could stock up on over-the-counter meds for next year. Now you won’t have that option, and I am willing to bet that a lot of people don’t use the FSA next year for fear of not being able to spend that money. Even worse, I bet people end up losing money because they couldn’t spend it on anything.
To be honest, I don’t buy a lot of meds and this will probably only affect me personally by a few dollars a year, but on principle I think this change is absurd. As far as I can tell, this change is being made solely for the government to increase their tax revenues, and it’s coming at the expense of making health care accessible to Americans. I think that’s a horrible trade and I’m more than a little pissed off about it!
OK, I’ve expressed my opinion; now I’m interested in yours. Do you think this law takes our country in the right direction on health care and taxes, or do you think this will just make health care even more expensive than it already is?
And if you think this is a good idea, please tell me why. I like to believe I’m a pretty objective thinker, but I honestly can’t think of a single reason.
Kevin McKee is an entrepreneur, IT guru, and personal finance leader. In addition to his writing, Kevin is the head of IT at Buildingstars, Co-Founder of Padmission, and organizer of Laravel STL. He is also the creator of www.contributetoopensource.com. When he’s not working, Kevin enjoys podcasting about movies and spending time with his wife and four children.
You are absolutely correct. The new health care law is an Obamination! It will raise taxes (regardless of what the Annointed One says) and limit our choices. Obama does not like this “Land of the Free” idea. He is moving us steadily toward full-blown socialism, and this health care thing is just his first move. We can see that many large companies are planning to drop their healthcare coverage for their employees and force them into the government offered programs. At first this seems like a screw-up on the part of the government….oops….we didn’t think they would do that! But, when you think about it, perhaps that was the plan all along. They couldn’t get the single-payer system through congress, so why not offer hidden incentives to make it happen anyway….and, make it appear that it’s the greedy corporations that forced it as they try to deny health coverage for their hard working employees. It’s all a big sham.
I don’t know the bill as well as I could, but I have to agree that it seems to limit our choices more than it does to help us.
All I can say is that health care was/is definitely broken, and it doesn’t seem like Obamacare did anything but make it worse.
Kevin, I love the videos. I agree that Obamacare is going to cause hard working middle class Americans grief. I, personally, am sick of entitlement programs which lead to laziness and lack of motivation. The founding principles of this country are Life, Liberty, and the PURSUIT of Happiness. Notice the “Pursuit” of happiness, not just happiness. If you work hard you can get ahead. If one is not willing to work hard it is not the responsibility of others to support them. Keep up the good work.
Amen brotha’! I think there were some good aspects to the bill, but I’m overwhemingly against most of it (at least what I know about it).
I don’t really get why this specific change was made, but I do like that I can stay on my parents plan for way longer, if I need to. Nice safety net there.
I’d prefer single payer though. I don’t really understand the arguments against it. I just find it ironic that Americans have no problem with “socialized” firefighting, but god forbid we do the same with chemo. Nope, not my problem! Work harder! The super rich will still be able to buy the very best care for themselves, if they choose.
/end rant
The difference between firefighting and health care is that Health Care accounts for 17% of government spending already, and we still aren’t getting much out of it. How much of that $1 trillion has had a direct impact on your life?
Also, the only people who use firefighters are people who definitely need them. Nobody calls the fire department unless their house is on fire. With socialized health care, people could abuse the system for the sniffles and clog it up for people who are actually sick.
So, hey, it’s been about six months since this went into effect. What has the impact been for you?
Well the immediate impact was that I bought a lot of meds in December that I didn’t need, but thought I might need in the future, so I could save on taxes.
I personally almost never use medication, so the impact for me is pretty minimal. However, I knew that would be the case. Its the people who use a lot of medication I’m concerned about.