welfare making some politicians unlikely to support them. Medical savings account would be high-deductible insurance policies that would be combined with a tax-deferred savings account. A policyholder could either withdraw money towards medical expenses or simply let it accumulate. They would also be able to withdraw money for non-medical related expenses by paying a penalty if they are under age 65.Programs including Medicaid, CHIP, and COBRA, which allows the unemployed to continue for a time on their former employer's health plan, are more a patchwork of coverage than an insurance system. Indeed, some incremental reforms are better than others. Consumers Union has supported efforts to cover all children and expand Medicare to include adults ages 55 to 64, paired with regulations that prevent discrimination by insurers against the sick. But those approaches keep the current system intact. And for taxpayers, that's a very poor value. The public now pays to support the uninsured through federal payments to hospitals and community clinics and through state and local taxes. Yet the uninsured are getting second-class health care. And money is being wasted....
