HSA Insurance

**mhope** · 06-30-2008, 06:52 PM

Could some one explain the differ in HSA Insruance and Health Insuance. The way understand it is you lose your deduction at end of the year rather use the deduction or not.

**PrairieRose** · 06-30-2008, 07:23 PM

An HSA is a savings account that you can put up to a certain amount into each year to cover your deductable health related expenses. Our's allows us to put up to $5600/yr. into our HSA. If we don't need to reimburse ourselves at the end of the year (in other words if we didn't have to go to the dr. or hospital or have many Rx's filled) we get to keep the money in the account. If at retirement age there is money in the account (except for the current year at the time) it rolls over like an IRA and we can use that money in that manner. So, just like your reg. insurance policy yes, every year the deductables start over at the beginning of the year, you do not lose your money in the HSA account that you have not used or reimbursed to yourself for covered expenses. You only 'lose it if you have to use it' so to speak......

.

ETA

Reg. insurance is such that while you have a deductable amount that you have to meet before the insurance kicks in to cover and pay for your expenses you do not have the tax deductable savings account that is set aside to cover the deductible. You do not have to deposit the maximum allowable amounts into the HSA but if you're at all able to it's a great idea as the money is tax deductible and then as I said before if there is money left over at retirement age you can use as retirement funds.

**mhope** · 06-30-2008, 08:54 PM

Originally Posted by PrairieRose

An HSA is a savings account that you can put up to a certain amount into each year to cover your deductable health related expenses. Our's allows us to put up to $5600/yr. into our HSA. If we don't need to reimburse ourselves at the end of the year (in other words if we didn't have to go to the dr. or hospital or have many Rx's filled) we get to keep the money in the account. If at retirement age there is money in the account (except for the current year at the time) it rolls over like an IRA and we can use that money in that manner. So, just like your reg. insurance policy yes, every year the deductables start over at the beginning of the year, you do not lose your money in the HSA account that you have not used or reimbursed to yourself for covered expenses. You only 'lose it if you have to use it' so to speak......

.

ETA

Reg. insurance is such that while you have a deductable amount that you have to meet before the insurance kicks in to cover and pay for your expenses you do not have the tax deductable savings account that is set aside to cover the deductible. You do not have to deposit the maximum allowable amounts into the HSA but if you're at all able to it's a great idea as the money is tax deductible and then as I said before if there is money left over at retirement age you can use as retirement funds.

Do you have to put the whole deductable up front at the start.

**Greebo** · 06-30-2008, 08:58 PM

No, you do not, nor do you have to put the whole deductible in (but if you do not, and you have to use it, you have to come up with it yourself).

We signed up for an HDHP/HSA (high deductible health plan with HSA) in 10/07. We had the diff between what we would have paid under the old plan, and what we pay now under the new plan, put into our HSA w/ every pay. This amounts to about $260 a month, which probably we should increase, but not till we're rid of the car payments.

But to be very clear, you do NOT DO NOT DO NOT lose the money at the end of the year. It's yours, pre-tax, forever, afaik.

**nodmicks** · 06-30-2008, 09:02 PM

Prarierose you explained that better than the insurance reps did!

Mhope~ you are responsible to pay the deductable out of your hsa or pocket before the actual ins payments kick in on the hsa.

For example we have a 1500 per person or 3000 per family deductable. Dh hurt his knee. His bills were. $1000. We wrote a check from the HSA checkbook they sent us. Say his next bill is $600. We would pay $500 out of the HSA checkbook and ins would kick in on the remaining $100. There the deductable is met so ins will kick in the rest of the year. Hope that made sense!

Since our family deductable is $3000 dh has $50 every week added to the HSA. His employer kicks in an additional $10 weekly. Since the $ is regularly added to the HSA savings acount it has been there to pay any medical bills with.

**mhope** · 06-30-2008, 10:06 PM

Most of you get HSA through your employers right. I looking for Health Ins for me since can't get through my employer. HSA look like best deal for me. I do have small supplement ins at work.

**PrairieRose** · 07-01-2008, 08:45 AM

Originally Posted by mhope

Most of you get HSA through your employers right. I looking for Health Ins for me since can't get through my employer. HSA look like best deal for me. I do have small supplement ins at work.

ETA*
Just wanted to say a simplified way of looking at an HSA is this; Think of it as an Emergency Fund for the deductable amounts of your insurance policy.

We are self employed and have an insurance agent that hooked us up with our HSA. We don't get any benefits (health insurance or otherwise) from anyone but ourselves. A couple more things about HSA's. 1. You can put whatever you want into the HSA before April 15th of next year for this year (kind of like an IRA deposit). You can request reimbursement or withdraw the money whenever you need it. The leftover money is your's to keep but not to spend at will persay. You have to leave it in the account to use towards medical expenses (as you've already deducted the taxes on it) or pay the taxes on what you take out (hence negating the tax savings). 2. You do not have to create the HSA savings account with the insurance company that you buy the insurance from. You can open that account at any bank that carries HSA accounts. Our's is at our local bank and I love it that way. So easy to check my balance online, etc.... . I think HSA's are a great way for many of us to carry high deductables and be prepared at the same time. Also it helps that if we're somewhat lucky and take care of ourselves we can have another little savings account for retirement.

**nodmicks** · 07-01-2008, 08:50 AM

PrarieRose~ did I understand correctly that once you are a at retirement you can use the hsa money for anything???

**Greebo** · 07-01-2008, 08:57 AM

Originally Posted by PrairieRose

1. You can put whatever you want into the HSA before April 15th of next year for this year (kind of like an IRA deposit).

Not anything you want. There is an upper limit.

**TheRootedNomad** · 07-01-2008, 09:17 AM

HSA plans, flex pland, and regular medical insurance all have many different versions with some core formats that make the dec ision on which group they fit. Here are a couple of examples

---Current HSA

My DH and boys are on a HSA plan which gives them coverage of everything , 100%, after the first $4000 spent each year. This is their deductible and what DH is allowed to put in a year.

We do not have to roll this into an IRA every year. Only when we choose to or leave the plan.

He pays two fees each week. The first goes into the savings account. We can stop this one when we feel we have enough in there for any expenses. The second goes to pay for the medical coverage. Since the deductible is so high this regular fee is much lower than normal health insurance.

He can change what he chooses to put into his HSA at any time but our deductible remains the same.

----The flex plan offered at my job that I didn't choose

We would have had to pick how much we would spend for the year at the beginning of the year.

Anything we didn't use would have been lost

Very low cost insurance by comparison

Both are tax deductible monies

**PrairieRose** · 07-01-2008, 01:48 PM

Originally Posted by nodmicks

PrarieRose~ did I understand correctly that once you are a at retirement you can use the hsa money for anything???

Yeah you can take it out like you can out of your IRA.

**PrairieRose** · 07-01-2008, 01:51 PM

Originally Posted by Greebo

Not anything you want. There is an upper limit.

Correct, I did misspeak on anything but if you read my first post I stated that our upper limit is $5600......so I was referring to anything as anything up to your specific limit, only I didn't say that. I assumed we all knew exactly what I meant, irregardless of what I said....

**Greebo** · 07-01-2008, 02:04 PM

Originally Posted by PrairieRose

Correct, I did misspeak on anything but if you read my first post I stated that our upper limit is $5600......so I was referring to anything as anything up to your specific limit, only I didn't say that. I assumed we all knew exactly what I meant, irregardless of what I said....

Sorry, you did say that in your first post. I forgot you'd mentioned that earlier.

**mhope** · 07-01-2008, 05:28 PM

Thank y'll for your help. If I have a 3000 deduction and have preium of $220. 00 a mouth and after I use up my deduction does the ins kick in then. Hope I word that right.

**PrairieRose** · 07-01-2008, 09:00 PM

Originally Posted by mhope

Thank y'll for your help. If I have a 3000 deduction and have preium of $220. 00 a mouth and after I use up my deduction does the ins kick in then. Hope I word that right.

Yes it does. I don't know about the plan you're looking at but our's is a $5400/per year/per family deductible. Some deductibles are per person....But after you use up the deductible then the insurance kicks in and pays either 80 or 100%, be sure to find out which.