| Senate
Republican Leader Louis C. DeLuca (R-Woodbury) announced today
that his bill to allow Medical Savings Accounts (MSAs) in
the state of Connecticut passed the State Senate and will
now move to the House of Representatives for final approval.
MSAs are a federally sanctioned means for small businesses
to offer health care coverage to their employees when traditional
insurance plan costs are prohibitive. MSA plans allow employers
to offers a high deductible health insurance policy for catastrophic
health care costs while maintaining a pool of tax-free funds,
generated by pre-determined contributions from the employer
and the employees, to cover routine medical expenses.
“MSAs are
a common sense idea that the federal government and 45 other
states in the nation have recognized as being a useful tool
for expanding health care coverage, and I’m glad that
we’re on the way to making them available here in
Connecticut,” said Senator DeLuca. “MSAs are
simply another way of letting people make their own decisions
when it comes to their own health care, and it strikes me
as odd that here in the insurance capital of the world we
have taken so long to make them available to our residents.
We put countless mandates on insurance plans that drive
the costs through the roof, so it’s about time we
offer people the option for a different kind of coverage.”
As lead Republican
member of the General Assembly’s Insurance Committee,
Senator DeLuca has advocated on behalf of MSA legislation
for the past several years. A similar MSA measure passed
through the State Senate two years ago, but died on the
House calendar after a partisan parliamentary procedure.
With today’s bi-partisan approval, Senator DeLuca
is confident that this year will finally see MSAs signed
into law by the Governor.
“This
is an idea whose time has come here in Connecticut, and
I am hopeful that the House will soon pass this bill and
finally give the Governor the opportunity to sign it into
law,” said Senator DeLuca. “I think most of
the uninsured residents in the state would appreciate the
opportunity to participate in an MSA plan, and I’m
sure the many thousands of people throughout the country
who have benefited from these plans would agree. I’m
pleased the State Senate decided today that giving people
more options for their own health care coverage is a public
policy that the legislature should support.” |
