Life Settlement Players Root for Health Account Bill
H.R. 5958 could help people sell life policies without paying taxes on the proceeds.
The Life Insurance Settlement Association (LISA) is working to build support for H.R. 5958, a new U.S. House bill that could help people use the proceeds from the sale of life insurance policies to pay health care expenses.
Under the provisions of H.R. 5958, a consumer who sold an in-force policy and put the money in a senior health planning account could spend the money on “qualified health care expenses” without paying federal income taxes on the proceeds from the life insurance policy sale.
Resources
- The H.R. 5958 Congress.gov page is available here.
- An article about Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 life policy sale reporting guidelines is available here.
The Internal Revenue Service would use Internal Revenue Code Section 213(d) to decide what expenses counted as qualified health care expenses, according to the bill text. The IRS now uses that section to determine whether the holder of a flexible spending account can use FSA money to pay for a particular product or service.
A consumer who spent some of the cash from the life insurance policy sale on ordinary living expenses would have to include that portion of the policy sale proceeds in table income, according to the bill text.
H.R. 5958, the “Senior Health Planning Account Act” bill, was introduced by Rep. Brian Higgins, D-N.Y., and Rep. Gregory Steube, R-Fla.
The bill is similar to H.R. 7203, a bill Higgins and Rep. Kenny Marchant, R-Texas, introduced in the House during the 115th Congress.
Chris Conway, the chair of LISA’s board, has put out a statement welcoming the introduction of the bill.
“This is an innovative private sector solution to address the escalating costs of health care burdening not only American seniors, but state and federal Medicaid budgets,” Conway said in the statement.
Michael Freedman, the chief executive officer of Lighthouse Life Solutions LLC of Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, and the chair of LISA’s public policy council, also welcomed the introduction of the bill.
“H.R. 5958 will allow millions of seniors to use life insurance assets they already own to help provide for their own health care in retirement,” Freedman said. “Seniors are the only group of Americans who are not eligible for existing tax programs for contributing their own resources to help pay for health care.”
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