I think you have a very good point here. I consider myself pretty well informed on mainstream tax-arbitrage schemes (i.e., not exotic offshore tax dodging) and I know very little about how this may help me (the details, as opposed to the politics).

Thus, I have downloaded the paper and will read it. First glance, it looks promising. When you start seeing numerous articles in all the Money web sites, and when you start to see CFA's bombarding their clients (right around April 2004) with ideas on how to use (and possibly abuse) this vehicle, this may have the potential for being a real winner with the "owner" class.

MG: I'm slowly wading thru the details too. FULL DISCLOSURE: I'm no tax expert to be sure. One significant change of the HSA over the MSA seems to be eligibility and comingled payments. In the MSA, either you solely or the employer entirely (in a group MSA scenario) had to pay the premiums on the healthcare and fund the MSA. Under the new HSA it appears both you and your employer may combine funds to make the contribution. If I'm reading it correctly, for small businesses, this could be a great fit as opposed to sloggin thru the complications of a full blown cafeteria plan or just doing the usual group insurance option.

As to how much market force HSA's reintroduce to the question of healthcare - that's a tough one. Of course, one of the tradeoffs of the savings acount is higher deductibles. But you still have to get healthcare somewhere. My guess is it will take some time for lots of "use it or lose it" Americans to rewire their thinking and realize that staying healthy and judiciously spending your healthcare dollars will leave you with real American greenbacks in your account at the end of the year. And, if you make a practice out of such a lifestyle, you'll have what amounts to a retirement bonus account when you're 60.