[3] MSAs are similar to health savings accounts (HSAs), which were established as part of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003.
Medical savings was first introduced to the world as an alternative method of national health care financing in Singapore's Medisave scheme as early as the 1980s.
He further reasoned that if patients (as opposed to third-party payers) paid their own medical expenses, then the cost of health care would decrease.
In the early-mid 1990s Stephen implemented his revolutionary healthcare principle through his Florida insurance company, Proweh Health Systems Inc (Clearwater, FL).
Stephen Wischweh died in 1998 from cancer, but his ultimate vision of Flex Spending Accounts is now widely used throughout the United States and beyond.
The 'Archer MSA' term refers to the sponsor of the HIPAA amendment creating the accounts in 1996, Congressman Bill Archer of Texas.
[3] The risk is that an MSA account holder may find that their medical expenses outstrip the contributions they can afford to make.
The MSA is generally a defined trust account that is set up solely as an IRS-related, tax-exempt financial instrument for medical expense purposes.
[3] There are very specific qualifications to be met before making any contributions and in part those are performed using a worksheet in the IRS Form 8853 instructions.
Other personal conditions, such as a period of non-employment as a self-employed individual, allow the payments for the high deductible insurance policy itself to qualify to be paid from the plan.
[5] The HSA is available to everyone who participates in a qualifying High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP), not just the self-employed or small corporations.