1 Vote
RE: Spend, spend, spend
When you say “boost” do you mean from 2007 levels, 2008 levels or 2009 levels? The economy is better off now than it was 6 months ago, perhaps a year ago
Boosting the economy I think should also be reflected with declining unemployment, not the inverse.
While this likely won’t benefit you or me or many of the members of this site in any large way, I believe it is a worthy venture to provide better health care to those who currently cannot afford it.
As I have mentioned previously I think it’s a worthy venture, just not right now. True it’s not going to benefit me very much, but it will make my job more difficult, and affects me directly.
With #4 and #5, why the focus on these?
Some people use these for medical procedures that are not essential, which seems to be what they want to eliminate. I know people who have used it for plastic surgery (cosmetic), Lasik eye surgery, straightening teeth, and teeth whitening. As long as it falls under the “medical” umbrella you can use those funds for that. I’m confident there are more things to use it for, but those are just the few that I am personally familiar with. These type of expenses are the ones they would like to eliminate because the claim is that it drives up the cost of health care and is unnecessary.
RE: Spend, spend, spend by Jackson
Boosting the economy I think should also be reflected with declining unemployment, not the inverse.
I was unable to use the link to see what you wanted me to see. Do you mean that unemployment is climbing faster now than a year ago or 6 months ago? I have been trying to find a definitive reference for that.
As I have mentioned previously I think it’s a worthy venture, just not right now. True it’s not going to benefit me very much, but it will make my job more difficult, and affects me directly.
Fair enough. But, honestly, do think there will ever be a good time to do it? I am sure that some other thing with arise to allow us to again put it off. I am interested in how it will make your job more difficult. I don’t really have any knowledge about that. Is it just in larger numbers or more paper work or other thing I don’t know about?
Some people use these for medical procedures that are not essential, which seems to be what they want to eliminate.
So, the logic is that if these people had to pay taxes on that FSA/HSA money, they wouldn’t spend the money? That would be an interesting study. I, for one, received LASIK due to an FSA and I am thankful for it. For me it wasn’t strictly necessary, though my opthamalogist (not the one who did the surgery) did recommend it for my extremely poor vision (-9.50, -9.50 ~ contact prescription).
But that aside, is this a supply and demand cost argument? That the more people who pay to have their teeth straightened/whitened the more I have to pay for a physical? There is so much I don’t know about how the healthcare industry, but I don’t see how those procedures drive up costs for everyone. Driving up costs, to me, is getting procedures that are not valid for your complaint. Like an MRI because you lied about falling down (to get a bed in the hospital for a night – actually happened during my wife’s ER rotation), or going to the doctor everytime you have a cold or having to go the ER with pneumonia because you couldn’t afford a simple doctor’s visit for treatable bronchitis. I am not a big fan of tax-incentivized plastic surgery, but I wouldn’t consider FSA fund use for it fraudulent or even misuse. I guess I can see where you are coming from though. You want someone to decide what treatments are acceptable for use of FSA funds and which aren’t. Rationing, if you will. =)