<nobr>May 3, 2006</nobr>

Major Employer Group Applauds Cantor for Introduction of Tax Fee Health Savings Act

Washington, D.C. – The ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC), representing America’s largest employers, today lauded Representative Eric Cantor (R-VA) for introducing the Tax Free Health Savings Act of 2006.
<>The bill would allow individuals tax deductions and credits in order to make contributions to HSAs if they are not offered through an employer. Also in the bill are provisions to allow employers to contribute more money to the HSAs of chronically-ill employees, to allow reimbursement for medical expenses incurred a year before opening an HSA, to allow coordination of HSAs with Health Retirement Accounts, and to increase the contribution limits to individual and family HSAs to equal the average monthly deductible and out-of-pocket medical costs they incur, respectively.

“The Tax Free Health Savings Act represents a serious step in the right direction for Health Savings Accounts,” said ERIC Vice President for Health Policy Edwina Rogers. “This bill is exactly what HSAs need to get a serious boost – many major employers are eager to offer consumer-driven health solutions like HSAs, but there are a number of changes necessary to make them better.”

ERIC’s Health Savings Account Workability Project has called for a number of changes to HSAs – including higher contribution limits, increased portability, and expansion of acceptable uses for HSA funds – all of which the administration called for this year, and are addressed in the Cantor bill.

“The proposals in Representative Cantor’s bill reflect what ERIC asked the administration to do,” Rogers said. “Passage of this bill will make HSAs a more desirable health benefit option for America’s largest employers, who provide benefits to tens of millions of Americans.”

For further information contact Mike Chittenden, Communications Director at 202-789-1400 or mchittenden@eric.org.

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ERIC is a non-profit association committed to representing the advancement of the employee retirement, health, and compensation plans of America’s largest employers. ERIC’s members provide benchmark retirement, health care coverage, compensation and other economic security benefits directly to tens of millions of active and retired workers and their families. ERIC has a strong interest in proposals affecting its members’ ability to deliver those benefits, their cost and their effectiveness, as well as the role of those benefits in the American economy.

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