HSA vs. health insurance

[lovestoread]

what would you do? We are now paying $161.50 /wk out of my husbands check for insurance. We are now being offered an HSA for a family of 4 at $86.42 a week. I talked to the lady at his work, and she recommended it for our situation. She is a very good friend and knows our family history. If we do not use this account much, or have money left over we can use it as a retirement fund. We will also be getting some interest, she just wasn't sure what rate yet. We will have a checking acct. and a debit card for this and it can be used for glasses, contacts, dental (which we dont have ). This year has been a bad one for us medically, but w/ 2 teenaged daughters, it isn't normally that bad.
What do you think?

Berry

[Telephus44]

I would absolutely go with it. My only question, since I'm not quite up on HSA's - is the money available to you upfront (like an FSA) or a pay-as-you go kind of thing? I'd also check out what you'd be contributing and what the max is, then you can adjust it yearly if you have anticipated medical expenses (like braces).

[mom22grls]

We switched to a HSA this year.

Before we had....
$1000 deduct then 80/20
$15 copay
prescription $10 generic $25 + ??% non-generic
roughly $800 a month

Now we've got
$5500 deduct then 100%
prescription discounts

$450 a month

*but* we can contribute to the HSA tax free and use this money for *any* medical expenses....like anything related to the deductable or other things like glasses, non-prescription meds, dental, etc.

If you use the HSA money for non-deductable things, you've spent that money and you *could* potentially have to come up with the deductable out of pocket.

SO, one question is, how much to the HSA does the employer contribute? And then you can fill it up to ??$5500 ( I don't know *exactly*). If you don't use the money, you still get to keep it.
Right off hand, I don't remember all the rules with investing it & taking it out.....we have spent it as fast as it's going in this year.

You *have* to use it for medical expenses, or it's taxed....and I don't remember if it's a higher rate or just the regular ol rate.

With the HSA qualifying ins that we have you have to pay the *first* $5500 out of pocket. So, like, the kid has an ear infection.......you go to the DR & it's say $110 after the PPO discount & the prescription is say, $75 after the discount. You pay it *all* up until you've payed the $5500....then the ins pays 100% of the covered things.

We found not all things are covered, either. Well child is excluded the first year and they are excluding DD's eczema. *nothing* related to eczema is covered *at all*. No biggie to us on that. Birth control is not covered. very limited Chiropractic.

But, we're private...not a group, so they can be picky with us. Group plans are required to take *everybody* that wants to be in the group (all employees).

That's all I can think of right off hand.

So far, it's done us well. We were paying *outrageous* premuims before.

[Dancing Lotus]

I am so glade you posted this. It has given me some food for thought. We will be without insurance for about three months then my dh can sign up with his new employer but we are going to use this time to make an informed decision.

[PrairieRose]

We have an HSA and it's been great for us. We have the $5100. deductable, and yes we do have to meet that and then anything over that is reimbursed to us, including things like chiropractic care and over the counter meds (aspirin, tylenol, cough syrup).