The Medical Savings Account Provision of the HIPAA: Is It Sound Health and Tax Policy?

This Comment argues that the Medical Savings Account (MSA) provision of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) fails to meet the goals of either tax policy or health policy. As a result of this failure, the demonstration program should be redesigned to provide valid and reliable information about whether the availability of tax-preferred MSAs will decrease the affordability of health care and its availability to the less healthy