By Joanna Allhands
Jan. 11, 2017

I don't know about you, but my health-savings account is flipping useless.

Annual contributions are limited to a ridiculously low amount. And there are so many restrictions on how you use the cash.

I deposit a few bucks each month, in case something catastrophic happens to me. But for many of those everyday medical bills -- not to mention the ever-increasing burden of paying for health insurance -- I might as well be throwing that money at the moon. 

Easier use? That makes perfect sense

Enter Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake and his Health Savings Account Expansion Act.

The bill would roughly triple contributions -- to $9,000 a year for individuals -- and halve the penalties for withdrawing the cash for non-qualified expenses, from 20 percent to 10 percent. It would allow anyone to open an account (for now, they are limited to us poor schmucks with high-deductible health plans).

And, most importantly, it would finally cover the medical costs -- over-the-counter medications, primary-care services and monthly insurance premiums -- we all have but can't currently use our HSAs to pay.

Makes sense, right?

Health costs are going up. For all of us. And that's not going to change any time soon, no matter how Congress votes on an Obamacare repeal. It seems the least our lawmakers could do is give more people a carrot -- in the form of a savings account that allows them to deduct contributions from their taxes and withdraw the cash tax free -- to help pay the costs we can't avoid.

And yet, Flake's bill is probably doomed

That's why I like Flake's bill -- and why it's probably doomed in the Senate.

It's too simple. Too focused. It doesn't solve the entire health-care system's problems. Heck, it doesn't even answer all of the questions about expanding the use of HSAs, like how they would help people with the least ability to save. Some have suggested the feds offer matching grants or lump sums for low-income folks, but Flake doesn't go there.

I'd argue that he doesn't have to. It's becoming increasingly clear that Republicans can't agree on how to fix the system, and passing any kind of wide-reaching solution is never going to happen. (I mean, seriously, have we learned nothing from the fight over comprehensive immigration reform?)

The only way to break the logjam -- and do something useful for us regular folks -- is to pass a few targeted bills like Flake's. But that's not what Congress is looking to do.

Click here to view the original article.