House Package Rolls Back Obamacare Restrictions on Health Savings Accounts

Press Release

The House of Representatives passed a package of bills signaling bipartisan opposition to Obamacare, the President's signature healthcare law that upended private health insurance and raised healthcare costs, said Rep. Frank Guinta (NH-01).

Manchester's former mayor, who voted to repeal and replace Obamacare -- and succeeded in delaying a 40-percent tax on employee health benefits, which New Hampshire employers said would harm hiring and wages -- voted for the legislation, the Restoring Access to Medication Act of 2015, yesterday.

Specifically, it lifts Obamacare restrictions on purchasing over-the-counter prescriptions using a health savings account (HSA), increases HSA contribution limits, and expands allowable expenses. HSAs are tax-exempt saving accounts for medical purposes that supplement high-deductible health insurance plans.

"In order to pay for high deductibles under Obamacare, middle- and working-class Granite Staters are turning to HSAs out of necessity. To force participation in a bad healthcare plan, however, the Administration is denying people struggling to make ends meet a sensible alternative," said Rep. Guinta. "We're helping to return some flexibility to their lives."

Extensive research shows high-deductible plans and deductible amounts on the rise, as Obamacare forces heathcare rationing. From 2009 to 2014, Americans' health insurance premium costs rose by an average of 28 percent, estimates one free-market advocacy group, and insurance experts are predicting more double-digit increases this year.

The Restoring Access to Medication Act also requires that the federal government recoup improper Obamacare subsidies. A Senate report revealed that subsidies to Obamacare enrollees later deemed ineligible for coverage amounted to $750 million last year.

"It's remarkable that Democrats are starting to understand Obamacare's harm to their constituents, as Republicans have been saying, and these provisions passed on suspension," said Rep. Guinta. The House sometimes suspends procedural rules to pass non-controversial legislation.

"In this case, some of my colleagues on the other side of aisle have even come to the conclusion that improper subsidies to individuals of uncertain immigration status harm American citizens who need our assistance most."

In 2009, President Obama promised his healthcare reform would deny benefits to illegal aliens, a promise the Senate proved false.

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