Hollington Co-Sponsors Bill for State Employee Health Savings Accounts

State Rep. Richard Hollington was co-sponsor of a bill to require health savings accounts be made available to state employees.

House Bill 97, introduced Thursday with 20 co-sponsors, would provide an option for employees, including elected officials, to elect a high-deductible health care plan and set up their own health savings accounts.

"Affording the HSA option to state employees is good for Ohio because it will reduce the cost for health care provided to 'electing' state employees. It is an obvious benefit to healthy employees who can accumulate more money in an HSA than they can in an IRA, and depending upon the extent of their medical expenses, provide them with a nice retirement account at age 65, all before tax," Hollington said.

HSAs would belong to employees and would be used to pay medical expenses of employees and their dependents.

Hollington added that HSAs help control health care costs because patients pay medical expenses with their own money and have incentive to ask questions of doctors or hospitals.