The GOP is Ready...

...to provide more tax breaks for the wealthy. The middle class and the poor are welcome to go pound salt. You can't put money into an HSA (Health Savings Account) if you're spending all of your money for food and shelter. Those who wind up with the tax breaks for an HSA are the wealthy.

From the Wall Street Journal - click here to read more...

Allan Hubbard, a businessman-turned-policy maker, thinks he has found the solution for taming rising health costs: Make health care work more like a market, with well-informed consumers shopping for the best deals.

Mr. Hubbard, a buddy of President Bush's from Harvard Business School days, is the White House's lead pitchman on the president's health-care proposals. They include providing bigger tax breaks for health-savings accounts, or HSAs, and making hospitals' and doctors' prices available to consumers. The goal: to spur people to think about what they are spending for care, much as they do when shopping for a car or gallon of milk.

His market-oriented approach also is drawing criticism. Democrats say the emphasis on HSAs does little to help the uninsured and favors the healthiest and wealthiest Americans. The accounts, which must be paired with high-deductible insurance, allow people to save and withdraw funds tax-free for medical expenses.