Medical Savings Accounts. MSAs are tax-efficient savings accounts designed to encourage savings to cover health expenses - in particular the deductible (co-payment element) of Catastrophic Health Insurance. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 established a five-year MSA demonstration project for employees of small firms and the self-employed. MSAs under HIPAA provided federal tax deductions for contributions to multiyear savings accounts established for medical purposes. Victoria Craig Bunce believes that these accounts were poorly designed and hampered by regulations imposed under the HIPAA. She argues that these regulations should be relaxed to allow MSAs to develop.

By Cato Institute, US.

Health Policy Resource.

Teenage Pregnancy. The increase numbers of children being born to teenage mothers is one of the more worrying trends in the UK and US. This is because far more children of teenagers are born into poverty and welfare dependence than babies born to older parents. Teen childbearing is very costly. A 1997 study by Rebecca Maynard of Mathematica Policy Research in Princeton, New Jersey, found that, after controlling for differences between teen mothers and mothers aged 20 or 21 when they had their first child, teen childbearing costs taxpayers more than $7 billion a year or $3,200 a year for each teenage birth, conservatively estimated. "What Can Be Done to Reduce Teen Pregnancy and Out-of-Wedlock Births?" by Isabel Sawhill discusses American attempts to reduce teenage pregnancy rates through a variety of programmes.

By Brookings Institution, US.

Health Policy Resource.

A European Constitution. "Does the European Union have a Constitution? Does it need one?" by Jean-Claude Piris discusses the present day constitutional arrangements for the European Central Bank, Parliament,Council, Commission and Court of Justice. He discusses how the EU's constitutional charter could be transformed into a constitution like that of a state, and whether this would be feasible. Other measures for tackling the democratic deficit are also analysed inn this paper from the Jean Monnet Programme. For more materials on the possibility of a European Constitution see the European Constitution Watch pages of L'Institut Français des Relations Internationales and the Campaign for a European Federal Constitution.

By Jean Monnet Program, France, US.

Governance Policy Resource.

The Impact on New Mexico's Budget of Allowing Same-Sex Couples to Marry. March 23, 2006. This report finds that giving marriage rights to same-sex couples in New Mexico will have a positive impact on the state budget. The study estimates that the state would save up to $1.5 million to $2 million each year for the state.

By Williams Project, US.

Family and Children Policy Resource.