Tax Benefits?

Who is running our government? As our politicians have attempted to make things better for the working class of our society, more insanity ensues. Today, i'm talking about Flexible Spending Accounts.

At DAXKO, where I work, we received news yesterday that we would now have FSAs as a benefit. My first thought was, oh good. After a little research, I do not know what to think about them. I must decide how much medical expense I will incur during the year at the beginning of the year, and if I guess wrong, I'll lose any money I did not use. I do not know the accuracy of wikipedia on this, but it tells me that I can REQUEST a refund (it's not automatic) of unused funds, and if I do not request a refund, I'm taxed on the non-refunded amount.

Surely, this is wrong. From my little research (10 minutes or so online), it seems that FSAs are another attempt by our government officials to provide relief, and once again, they have only made our lives more difficult.

At first glance I think, "Yes, I'll participate. After all it's free money." But stepping back, I wonder if it is free money. There seems to be a good bit of overhead as I must manage yet another account of money, and interact with the government on yet another level (Ever file tax returns?). Living in America, we become less free everyday. If I participate in this plan, does the federal government now know every medical expense I make? And what am I being paid for this disclosure? The tax benefit does not seem to be that significant (a few hundres dollars per year).

I'm not knocking DAXKO here. This is all about the politicans we continually elect into office. They attempt to fix a broken system and it only becomes worse. And no Mike Huckabee, preventative healthcare is not the ultimate solution. We cannot prevent all health problems, and if we move that direction, I'll be going to the doctor once a week for a "check-up" in order to not lose my co-pay that I set aside at the beginning of the year in hopes that I could keep from getting sick. Preventative healthcare simply leads to "charts" that are useless.

After all, how many of you have babies under a year old that either weigh too much or weigh too little? Everyone of Peggy and I's children have measured 90% height and 10% weight on "the charts"? In a world where obesity is a major issue one would think this is a good thing, but not according to our doctors who are into "preventative healthcare measures".