|  | Healthcare Industry | Health Insurance

About the Health Savings & Affordability Act

The Health Savings and Affordability Act of 2009, or H.R. 3610, was a proposed piece of legislation that would have allowed individuals to take a tax deduction for health insurance premiums. It also proposed increasing the amount that people could contribute to their health savings accounts. It was sponsored by Representative Steve Austria and cosponsored by 41 other congresspeople.

  1. Deduction of Qualified Health Insurance

    • One of the bill's biggest provisions was to allow an individual to deduct the cost of health insurance from his taxable income. To take this deduction, a taxpayer would have had to itemize deductions using Form 1040. The taxpayer would have been able to take a deduction for health insurance purchased to cover himself and his entire family.

    Catch-up Contributions

    • The Heath Savings and Affordability Act also proposed some changes to health savings accounts. Under this bill, spouses who both contributed to one HSA account would have been able to each make their eligible catch-up contributions into that one account. This would only have applied if the spouse did not have a separate HSA account of her own.

    Other Provisions

    • The bill proposed allowing the purchase of a high-deductible health plan by paying the premiums directly from a healthcare savings account. It would also have allowed a taxpayer with a high deductible plan to contribute more to the plan each year by increasing the limits. Exercise equipment and instruction were to have been reimbursable through a healthcare savings account or flexible spending account. This would have allowed someone to purchase a treadmill or gym membership using healthcare savings account funds.

    Disposition

    • H.R. 3610 was sent to the House Ways and Means Committee on September 22, 2009. It stayed there, never receiving a report or being voted on by either house. All sessions of Congress have a duration of two years, and at the end of the two-year period, all bills from the Committee are eliminated. That was the final disposition of the Health Savings and Affordability Act.

Health Insurance - Related Articles