s you have the right to choose. A proper solution adopts and protects this right. Fortunately, Congress has the power to preserve the freedom of choice in medicine: they can vote to expand medical savings accounts (MSAs). Approved for a limited test last year, MSAs are used in conjunction with high deductible insurance. Contributions are tax-deductible and money earns interest; funds may be used to cover medical expenses including mental health, vision and dental care tax-free. MSAs, offered by Merrill Lynch, Time Insurance and Wells Fargo, among others, allow employees to boost savings. MSAs offer patients an escape from managed care and put the patient in charge. Currently, the MSA option is restricted to a small group of self-employed, uninsured and small business people and a paltry 390,000 Medicare recipients. Expanding eligibility for MSAs to all Americans will protect what is left of the right to choose. A "choice" between trying to manage managed care with a plethora of new regulations and government run health care is not a choice, it's a death sentence. Congress ought to face the truth about managed care, back off trying to regulate HMOs and give unrestricted free choice in medicine a chance.Four years ago, fears of faceless federal bureaucrats making important medical decisions sunk the Clinton administration's national health insurance initiative. Today, many Americans find their medical decisions are being made by faceless bureaucrats of a different sort. These bureaucrats represent managed care health plans instead of the government. Once celebrated as forward-thinking, super-efficient organizations that would put a needed squeeze on doctor and hospital bills, HMOs and other managed-care plans are enduring a wicked backlash, frequently accused of irresponsible and potentially dangerous penny-pinching at the expense of patients stripped of medical options they once took for granted. In 1996, about 60 percent of Americans ...
