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Senator Don White's Floor Remarks on Senate
Bill 300
Madam President, I rise today
to offer my support for Senate Bill 300.
Over the past few years, this
body has considered several pieces of legislation intended to address the health
care crisis that is on the increase in Pennsylvania. Most of those bills
addressed the regulations regarding medical malpractice insurance or assisted
physicians -- especially those in the extremely skilled aspects of that
profession -- deal with rising premiums.
Senate Bill 300 is on a
completely different track.
This bill is designed to help
health care consumers.
Senate Bill 300 will give
Pennsylvanians more control of their health care by allowing them to set up
Health Savings Accounts exempt from state Personal Income Tax.
In effect, this legislation is
about choice. Individuals and families will have the option to save and prepare
in order to have the resources to pay for their health care. Giving people this
option gives them the power to make real decisions that affect their health
care.
If you look at the history of
health care insurance over the past few decades, these benefits have moved well
beyond their intended role. It wasn’t all that long ago that the role of
medical insurance was solely to cover catastrophic cases and costs.
For good or bad, that has
changed as medical benefits became an integral part of most companies’ incentive
packages. Then, as the result of a number of factors, medical costs began to
skyrocket. As costs increased, many companies have taken a harder line on that
coverage by increasing co-payments, having employees pay a greater share of
premium costs, or dropping coverage all together.
These changes not only created
problems in Pennsylvania, but across the nation.
Congress responded by
establishing provisions for Health Savings Accounts and that federal action was
followed by similar actions in state houses across the nation.
It’s time that Pennsylvania
takes this step to
allow people to
make personal decisions on the best way to provide for their healthcare
expenses; and therefore, Madam President I urge my colleagues to support Senate
Bill 300.
 
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