U.S. Rep. Erik Paulsen, R-Minn., and Sen. Mike Johanns, R-Neb., introduced legislation repealing restrictions placed on health savings accounts and flexible spending accounts in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

The House of Representatives on Thursday passed the Protect Medical Innovation Act of 2012 by a vote of 270-to-146, which will reinstate over-the-counter medicines as eligible expenses under flexible spending accounts without the requisite prescription established by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act last year.

The House Ways and Means Committee on Thursday approved the Restoring Access to Medication Act (H.R. 5842), which would repeal the provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that disqualified expenses for over-the-counter drugs as eligible for reimbursement under health savings accounts and flexible spending arrangements without a prescription.

There are few certainties in life — death, taxes and the fact that you can get one heck of a healthcare bargain at your local pharmacy counter. And thanks in no small part to the industry associations advocating for pharmacy — including the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, the National Community Pharmacists Association and the Consumer Healthcare Products Association — the lawmakers on the Hill are finally “getting it.”

Give a man a doctor’s co-pay, and he is healthy for a day. Give him a health savings account, and that man becomes so much more vested in ensuring positive health outcomes that he may be healthy for a lifetime. Because in the long run, it’s cheaper.

Companion legislation, which seeks to change a provision in the healthcare-reform law and permit Americans to use their flexible spending accounts and health savings accounts to buy over-the-counter medications without a prescription, has the support of the National Association of Chain Drug Stores.

Workers on average are paying nearly $4,000 this year toward the cost of family health...