Obama administration rules now require prescriptions for all Health Savings Account expenditures

Well, this is great.

Section 9003 of the Affordable Care Act established a new uniform standard for medical expenses. Effective Jan. 1, 2011, distributions from health FSAs and HRAs will be allowed to reimburse the cost of over-the-counter medicines or drugs only if they are purchased with a prescription. This new rule does not apply to reimbursements for the cost of insulin, which will continue to be permitted, even if purchased without a prescription.

The Affordable Care Act wants to forcibly reduce demand for health care and thus reduce health care expenditures, but they don't seem to understand how HSA work. In a HSA, you bear the full cost of these expenditures, and thus you are more careful in how things are spent. Instead, Obama and the Democrats want to force people out of these programs and into those programs where someone else picks up most of the cost of each dollar that is spent (thus making them less careful).