WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman French Hill (AR-02) released the following statement after supporting three bills this week to give Arkansans high-quality, affordable access to health care:
“Arkansans deserve access to high-quality, affordable health care, and that includes giving individuals and families the tools they need to get out from under the burden of Washington-knows-best programs to take control of their own health care needs. Competition in our health care system will drive down prices, and this week the House delivered on our promise for increasing health care options for American families. I was proud to support the repeal of the medical device tax that is driving up health care costs, the restoration of access to medication and modernization and expansion of the use of Health Saving Accounts (HSAs), and to help lower health care costs that have been burning a hole in the pockets of families all over the country. We still have much work to do, but these three bills are positive step in providing Arkansans and Americans with more flexibility and freedom over their health care decisions.”
Background:
1) The Protect Medical Innovation Act, H.R. 184, repeals the Medical Device Tax that took effect in 2013. Since 2015, Congress has passed two short-term suspensions of the tax.
2) The Increasing Access to Lower Premium Plans and Expanding Health Savings Accounts Act, H.R. 6311, does the following:
- Allows for additional amounts to be rolled over to subsequent calendar years for Flexible Spending Accounts.
- Allows for working seniors enrolled in Medicare Part-A to contribute to their HSAs.
- Allows anyone to purchase a catastrophic health care plan.
- Further delays the Health Insurance Tax.
3) The Restoring Access to Medication and Modernizing Health Savings Accounts Act, H.R. 6199, does the following:
- Expand the usages for Health Savings Accounts (HSAs).
- Makes certain changes in the restrictions on Health Savings Accounts relating to spousal coverage.
- Allows for other health related savings and spending accounts to be converted to Health Savings Accounts.
- Repeals certain restrictions Obamacare placed on the purchasing of over-the-counter medications with a Health Savings Account.
- Allows for certain qualified sports and fitness expenses to be treated as qualified medical expenses.
- The bill combines several bills that were marked up and reported by the Ways and Means Committee.
