Does anyone do a Healthcare Savings Account?

[SDSorority]

Does anyone use a Healthcare Savings Account on a high-deductable health insurance plan? I'm switching benefit plans from my husband's to my own, and my employer offers a high deductable health insurance plan, but they'll contribute a yearly amount of $3000 (or maybe it's $6000) into a Healthcare Savings Account at a particular bank to help cover medical expenses.

We only really go to the doctor for our yearly check-ups, dentist visits every 6 months, OBGYN yearly, etc.

Insurance is always so foreign to me!

 

[dzorn]

Yes we have one, not by choice. DH employer switch to high deductable plan as our only option last year. Just make sure you fund it to cover any emergencies. We make sure we cover it for more than our deductable would be plus some. Before you switch look at what your deductable would be as well as what would be covered after the deductable is met.

Though you only use it for yearly appoints now what if one of you were to get ill or have an accident.

The nice part is you do not lose the money if it is not used. Contributions are also tax deductable.


Denise in MI

 

[dvcgirl]

Yes, we've had an HSA for several years now. It works really well for us as we're in our early 40s, very healthy with no children.

We contribute $5,000 or so, and his company contributes the other $1,150. At least that was the max for 2010, $6,150. We do pay premiums for our health insurance, but it's not too bad. Our deductible is $3,000. We do each get one yearly physical covered and I get an Obgyn exam covered (with mammo).

Anything else....like this past December when we both had the flu, that's out of pocket. We have prescription coverage through his company as well. DH has allergic asthma, and so those visits are out of pocket.

I say "out of pocket" because we *could* use that HSA money to pay for those visits and co-pays for prescriptions.....tax free, but we use it as another "401K" so to speak.

His company offers investment options for our HSA money and so that money is invested in mutual funds.

We love the HSA....works really well for us.

I hope that helps.

 

[SDSorority]

It's all so confusing to me. If I understand it correctly, the amount that is in our HSA can be used for anything medical related, right? Even for things like Contacts/Glasses, appointments, etc? I think there is no 'copay' but you pay for the entire appointment using the HSA $$....

 

[juliebean]

We are new to the HSA too - hubby's employer merged and did away with our insurance that I guess is now considered one of these "cadillac" plans.. Oh well!

So, this new plan - the employer contributes a couple of thousand and then we are paying a couple of hundred more in a month. The goal is to have enough in the account to cover what the insurance won't cover if "the worst" happens. In our case they don't cover any costs until $3500. It does cover preventative and we have separate dental and vision. I'm not crazy about this plan - I have three kids, they get sick - but no choice to pick a different plan.

We have a "debit" card and it came with a list of what it could be used for. Not sure if it is uniform for every account - but it included dr. visits, prescription (NOT OTC, unless dr. writes a script), braces, glasses... You can also contact them for a free transfer once a year to a checking or savings account, otherwise the fees to get money from an ATM, or checks are pretty scary. I wouldn't try to keep more than you need in there - the interest rate is pretty low on ours..

So, we tried to use the debit card on January 3rd - because of course my husband, who never gets sick, got sick that day. It did not work. I haven't tried to use it since.

I do have a friend who saves all her receipts in a file and then requests all the funds she has paid out in mid dec and she uses that money for christmas. I might try doing that, seems like a good strategy to save for the holidays!

 

[SuzanneSLO]

[snip]I say "out of pocket" because we *could* use that HSA money to pay for those visits and co-pays for prescriptions.....tax free, but we use it as another "401K" so to speak.

His company offers investment options for our HSA money and so that money is invested in mutual funds. [snip]

We use ours the same way. My employer funds $6000 and even though we met our deductible and out of pocket both years we have had it, we paid all medical expenses OOP since the earnings on this money is tax free. Sort of a forced savings plan. However, our bank dropped its interest rates, so now we are looking at alternatives for investing the $$ we already have there. I treat it like an aditional emergency fund since we can pull it out tax free at any time. -- Suzanne

 

[lisalis]

We've had one through my husband's employer for the past 2 1/2 years. We used to be able to buy anything health related, such as Tylenol, vitamins, tooth whitener, etc.; but now the tax laws have changed and you can only get prescription items. It works well for us, but if you have any emergencies or need specialists it can add up fast. We normally don't see doctors or dentists except for check ups either, but in the past two years my husband had to replace a false tooth, my son saw a specialist twice, and I had a major surgery. The only thing that saved us from being overwhelmed by the expenses is that both the dentist and the hospital allowed us to pay interest free on a payment plan.

 

[Nik's Mom]

We just switched to a higher deductible program with HSA account because the health insurance prices sky-rocketed through my dh's job.

We are all healthy and only visit once a year. But those annual check ups are covered 100% anyway. The kids may go one additional time for an illness. DS is on medication and our higher deductible insurance will not cover prescriptions until our deductible is met. That is the only down side for us. We just made sure to have enough in the HSA account to cover his prescriptions.

 

[rvchat]

also as of this year and don't understand it very well either.

I do know that the premiums are much lower and if I needed to visit a Dr. (pretty healthy here ) for minor issues or infections, it'd be cheaper to just go and pay.

Looking into these walk in clinics too. The nurse at our GP does more for us than the physician in most cases anyway! lol

 

[Adi12982]

We have one. We contribute the minimum we need to in order to get the maximum DH's job will give. It rolls over year to year and anything you contribute is pre-tax. We also have a high deductible insurance - though regular yearly checkups don't have deductible's. Anyhow, we've used it to pay for prescriptions and dental work (and any deductibles we have to pay).

 

[johde]

I pay for my own health insurance and have a HDHP with a HSA. I have one of the better ones. I'm single and have a $1,500 deductible then it pays 100%. The premium was quite a bit less than normal insurance.

 

[emilymad]

We have a HSA plan this year as well. You definitly need to be careful of the perscriptions. One of mine would have been $200 a month since the copays don't kick in until you reach the deductible. Needless to say I switched to an alternative medicine.