Legislative Background
Recent Action on Health Savings Accounts
Health savings accounts (HSAs) were first authorized by the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act (P.L. 108-173), which President Bush signed into law in December 2003. The Act also contained a new prescription drug benefit for Medicare recipients, which recently took effect. HSAs were intended to reduce health care costs by giving individuals more control over the money they spend on medical services.Legislation to Expand HRAs. Since the law went into effect in 2004, a number of bills have been introduced in Congress to expand HRAs and make them available to a broader segment of the population. For example,…
