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COLLEGE TUITION

Beware this sticky IRA rule

New limits for health savings accounts

The IRS recently announced its inflation-adjusted limits for health savings accounts (HSAs) and related high-deductible health plans. For 2008, individuals with self-only coverage can deduct $2,900, up $50 from this year. For taxpayers with family coverage, the limit will be $5,800 in 2008, an increase of $150 from 2007. That works out to a 1.75 percent bump for the folks with self-only coverage, and 2.65 percent for those with a family plan.

MEDICARE

Time to write your congressman

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services wants to cut physician payments by 10 percent in 2008, a proposal that was immediately blasted. The AMA is calling on Congress to take action to stop the scheduled Medicare payment cuts, as the legislators have done for the past five years.

CMS says the cuts are required under the sustainable growth rate formula specified in the federal law governing the program. Unless Congress intervenes again, CMS will make a final ruling later in the fall, and the changes will take effect after Jan. 1. With barely five months to go, the clock is ticking.

PRIMARY CARE

Women to the rescue!

But during that time, a 40 percent increase in the supply of female primary care physicians helped offset a 16 percent decline in the supply of male primary care physicians.

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