By Laura Biddle-Bruckman U nder debate in Congress and under discussion in boardrooms, the concept of medical savings accounts is not likely to go away. For consumers who want to exercise personal control over their health care choices, medical savings accounts provide that option. Medical savings accounts, common-ly called MSAs, allow employers to redistribute money that is currently spent on health insurance.
Employers buy a catastrophic or high deductible health insurance plan to cover major health costs.
With some of the savings, the employer then puts a specified dollar amount in each employee's medical savings account. If the money in the savings account is unused during the year, the employee currently receives the money back as taxable income. In a Flexible Spending Account, any money unused at the end of the year is forfeited. If the employee leaves the company, any money left in the MSA belongs to the plan participant. In the past, we were in charge of finding our own doctors and finding our own specialists based on our own preferences, often after a referral by our family doctor.