I<>HEALTH SAVINGS ACCOUNTS (HSAs) EASE TAX BURDEN

NEWPORT BEACH, CALIFORNIA - This year's tax season presents double punishment for today's taxpayer: high taxes and higher health care costs. The twin threats, according to Americans for Free Choice in Medicine (AFCM), are related -- and a new tax law offers a partial remedy, just in time for April 15.

The best way to keep both taxes and the cost of health care down is to keep control of your own health care, suggests Richard E. Ralston, executive director of Americans for Free Choice in Medicine (AFCM). Recent tax code provisions for Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) help consumers avoid both higher taxes and higher health care expenditures.

Ralston explains that HSAs, used with low premium, high-deductible health insurance policies, put health care squarely within affordable reach of most Americans. Banks, insurance companies, mutual fund investment firms - even ehealthinsurance.com -- now offer HSAs, which took effect in January. Ralston cites new proposals that may actually improve the tax code.

While President Bush has expanded government intervention in medicine, he has made one decent proposal: tax exemption for the cost of every individual's health insurance premiums, Ralston noted.

But, for now, Ralston advised today's weary taxpayers: Look into tax-free Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) and fight to liberate your health insurance premiums from the tax. Ralston's health care commentary has been published in the Houston Chronicle, Orange County Register and the Washington Times.

Americans for Free Choice in Medicine, (AFCM), was founded in 1993. AFCM educates the public about the principles of socialized medicine and free market ideas, such as HSAs and tax reform, and publishes a consumer's guide on its Web site (http://www.afcm.org). AFCM is the nation's only educational organization based on individual rights, personal responsibility and free market ideas in medicine.