Dear Speaker Boehner and Minority Leader Pelosi:
The Consumer Directed Health Coalition (CDHC) is comprised of a broad representation of employers, insurers and advocacy groups dedicated to ensuring that employees and employers have access to quality affordable health care.
We are writing to express our support for H.R. 436, which would repeal a provision in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) that restricts the ability of individuals to use Health Savings Account (HSA) or Flexible Spending Account (FSA) dollars to purchase over-thecounter (OTC) medicines. This unnecessary limitation has forced some individuals to seek prescriptions for ailments that were previously treatable by OTC medicines, increased physician workloads as they dealt with increased calls for prescription drugs, and increased overall health care spending without any contributions to better health outcomes for patients.
Over the past few years, individuals, small employers, and large employers have turned to consumer directed health care options such as HSAs, FSAs and Health Reimbursement Accounts (HRA) to provide quality coverage to their employees. Since HSAs were first created, enrollment has grown from 1 million covered lives to approximately 13.5 million in January of 2012. More importantly, as employees maintain coverage year-over-year, they enjoy the benefits of greater control over their health care spending and, in many cases, are able to save money from one year to the next. Moreover, FSAs and HRAs continue to be a sound option for employers to offer health care benefits to their employees.
We urge the House to support H.R. 436 and other improvements to consumer directed health products to ensure they may be available in the future.
Sincerely,
American Hotel & Lodging Association
America’s Health Insurance Plans
Associated Builders & Contractors
BlueCross BlueShield Association
Business Roundtable
International Franchise Association
National Association of Health Underwriters
National Federation of Independent Business
National Restaurant Association
National Retail Federation
Retail Industry Leaders Association
U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Cc: The Members of the U.S. House of Representatives