Congress Encouraged to Protect Working Families and Flexible Spending Accounts in New Advertising Campaign

Congress Encouraged to Protect Working Families and Flexible Spending Accounts
in New Advertising Campaign

WASHINGTON, Oct. 27 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Save Flexible Spending Plans in
partnership with the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union
(UFCW) launched a new advertising campaign today encouraging Congress to honor
President Obama's pledge not to raise taxes on middle-class Americans by
preserving, rather than restricting, the use of flexible spending accounts
(FSAs) in health care reform legislation. The ads further promote the
advantages FSAs provide to nearly 35 million working Americans by enabling
them to set aside pre-tax dollars to pay for out-of-pocket health expenses not
covered by insurance, such as prescription drug costs, vision and dental
expenses and office visit co-payments.

"As Congress moves rapidly closer to having health care reform legislation
reach the floors of the Senate and House, there are no guarantees as to the
fate of flexible spending accounts," said Joe Jackson, chairman of Save
Flexible Spending Plans and CEO of WageWorks, a benefits company based in San
Mateo, California. "Despite the success of flexible spending accounts in
holding down health care costs for millions of primarily middle-class
Americans, poorly-conceived proposals are still pending that would severely
restrict access to the benefit in order to help fund some of the costs for
health reform. Raising taxes on the middle-class by restricting the use of
FSAs is simply a bad idea."

Provisions approved by the Senate Finance Committee now being considered in
the House of Representatives include a $2,500 cap on FSA contributions that
would not adjust with inflation. Failure to index the cap for inflation will
cause the value of a $2,500 FSA contribution to plummet to $1,250 in just nine
years. Additionally, the Senate Finance Committee approved provisions that
would lump FSAs together with high-cost insurance plans and subject them to an
excise tax, which would likely cause many employers to reconsider offering
FSAs altogether.

The ads will appear in publications such as the The Hill, Politico and Roll
Call. Copies of the ads are available here: Build on What Works and Don't Tax
the Middle Class.

About Save Flexible Spending Plans
Save Flexible Spending Plans is a national grassroots advocacy organization
protect against the restricted use of flexible spending accounts in health
care reform efforts. The campaign is sponsored by the Employers Council on
Flexible Compensation (ECFC), www.ecfc.org, a non-profit organization
dedicated to the maintenance and expansion of private employee benefit
programs on a tax-advantaged basis. To learn more, take action and read the
personal stories of FSA participants, please visit www.savemyflexplan.org.

About UFCW
The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) represents
more than 1.3 million workers, primarily in the retail and meatpacking, food
processing and poultry industries.

SOURCE Save Flexible Spending Plans

Michael Waxman, +1-202-872-4860 ext. 238, mwaxman@hydeparkcomm.com, for Save
Flexible Spending Plans