The League of American Bicyclists facilitates voter interaction with elected officials on key bicycling issues. Today I got a message that asked me to let my representatives know what they can do to better support fitness in America. If you are concerned like me about strengthening American health and well being, take action and ask congress to support the PHIT Act–the Personal Health Investment Today Act–as a way of empowering and propelling Americans towards fitness goals. Here’s the “take action” link…they make it easy and clear.
Here’s the email I received from the League of American Bicyclists:
Dear Mark,
Please ask Congress to support Physical Fitness by Co-sponsoring the PHIT Act
The Personal Health Investment Today (PHIT) Act would make it easier for Americans to be physically active. Specificaly it would allow individuals or families to use pre-tax dollars for physical fitness activites and equipment such as bicycles, confident cycling and other classes as well as school sports fees and gym memberships with dollars from pre-tax accounts like flexible spending accounts (FSAs) and Health Savings Accounts (HSAs).
Currently Americans redominately use pre-tax health accounts to pay for prescription drugs, doctor visit co-pays, etc. The PHIT Act would allow consumers to set aside up to $1000 per individual or $2000 per family from their HSA and FSA accounts. This helps families that put money into the HSA and then don’t need it for health care – now they can use it for preventative care like fitness.
PHIT will help reverse the sedentary/obesity trend by providing an economic incentive to invest in physical activity and help reduce overall health costs. Financial incentives have been used effectively to encourage home ownership, retirement savings and higher education; PHIT would do the same for investment in health via physical activity.
Bike Yogi 