Burlison says his healthcare plan could drive down costs and save taxpayers trillions of dollars

Missouri Congressman Eric Burlison says his proposed health care overhaul could do more than expand access to health savings accounts — he says it could also save taxpayers more than a trillion dollars over the next decade.

Burlison, speaking on Newstalk KZRG, says his Great American Health Care Act would allow Americans to put up to 24-thousand-500 dollars a year into tax-free health savings accounts. He says the goal is to give consumers more control over health care spending while using market forces to drive down costs.

"That $24,500 would be enough for you to pay for your premiums, pay for deductibles, pay for co-pays and still put some aside for savings," Burlison says.

But Burlison says the plan needs a way to pay for the tax changes. He is proposing an overhaul of a Federal Reserve policy that allows banks to earn interest on money they are eligible to borrow but have not actually taken.

Burlison says eliminating those payments could save taxpayers about 160 billion dollars a year.

He argues the change would also encourage banks to put more money into lending and investments, potentially increasing the supply of available credit and pushing interest rates lower.

The Congressman says short-sighted opponent could fail to see the forest for the trees:

"Even though you're going to see a return to market forces that will drive down costs, they're going to assume when you're not taxing people as much that will have a negative impact on the government and that's all they care about."

Burlison says the proposal could ultimately save taxpayers more than a trillion dollars over 10 years while injecting trillions of dollars into the economy.