Opponents of current MSA legislative proposals offer several criticisms of them. Yet anyone who understands the MSA and the private health insurance marketplace recognizes that the criticisms are unfounded. During the health care debate a few years ago, critics of the Clinton plan argued that his proposal would limit people's choices. President Clinton responded that people's choices already were limited. Most people, he said, had only one employer health plan to choose from.
Employers determine what type of health insurance their employees have.
However, they often price the options to encourage employees to choose one health insurance plan over the other. No employer is required to offer an MSA option. Those who do are free to structure and price their plan as they choose and to drop the plan if they find it unworkable. The MSA legislation also permits either the employer or the employee to make the deposit, but not both. Furthermore, while the MSA legislation before Congress would permit people to make deposits with pretax dollars, hundreds of companies have already switched to MSA plans in which the deposit is made with aftertax dollars.