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That depends a lot on your insurance. For example, our out of pocket for my son's birth was somewhere in the neighborhood of $10k after insurance. I've met tons
by throwway120385 1y ago
That depends a lot on your insurance. For example, our out of pocket for my son's birth was somewhere in the neighborhood of $10k after insurance. I've met tons of people who would be bankrupted by that amount. What you're describing isn't true for people on High Deductible Health Plans, and those plans are a bit of a racket because they're frequently paired with HSAs where the employer gets to pocket anything left in the account at the end of the year. My son was essentially unplanned, in the sense that we gave up on trying to have a kid but weren't using birth control because over the previous 3 years we had not had a successful pregnancy. So an HSA would have been no help for us.
- tptacek 1y agoHSA funds are meant to roll over. Your employer generally should not be pocketing whatever's left over in the account. The idea is that many (most?) people are better off with a lower premium and higher deductible given that most years (for most people) aren't characterized by high medical expenditures; HDHP+HSA is closer in nature to actual "insurance", rather than a structured financing plan for health care.
- lesuorac 1y agoFSA's not HSA's are use-it-or-lose-it. If you have a FSA I strongly suggest that you get an HSA instead. https://www.fidelity.com/learning-center/smart-money/hsa-vs-fsa https://www.fidelity.com/learning-center/smart-money/hsa-vs-...
- maxerickson 1y agoA lot of people with FSAs will have insurance that disqualifies having an HSA. I have the paranoid idea that they designed FSAs in such a goofy way for budget scoring and it drives me nuts.
- tptacek 1y agoThe preceding comment was discussing HDHPs, which depend on HSAs.
- maxerickson 1y agoYou think it's obvious that "lesuorac" was scoping their comment to people that have an FSA with an HDHP? Doesn't read that way to me.
- tptacek 1y agoIt's obvious in that they specifically referred both to HSAs (not FSAs), and to HDHPs, which depend on HSAs, not FSAs. FSAs are not a kind of HSA. So, yeah. Little bit.
- maxerickson 1y agoWhich they? The comment I replied to literally says: "If you have a FSA I strongly suggest that you get an HSA instead." Did you mean to reply to them?
- tptacek 1y agoYou are I are both commenting on a subthread started by a comment that included "What you're describing isn't true for people on High Deductible Health Plans, and those plans are a bit of a racket because they're frequently paired with HSAs where [...]", none of which is true. I don't care about FSAs and am not trying to argue with anybody about them, but that preceding comment is very wrong about HSAs and HDHPs.
- lesuorac 1y agoThe post I was replying to originally used the word "FSA" in the locations that they currently use "HSA". My post does seem a bit weird after their edit but at least one person learned something.
- no_wizard 1y ago>A lot of people with FSAs will have insurance that disqualifies having an HSA. Which should be illegal. It should be only HSA across the board. Its nonsensical that this is a thing. I'd love an HSA, but I can't due to my plan (can't do a high deductible plan for $reasons). I think there may be some loophole in setting up an independent HSA but I haven't looked into it enough, only recently heard of such a scheme
- com2kid 1y agoFSA is just a 30%-ish discount on medical expenses. It is useful for eye glasses and such. A lot of QoL services qualify for FSA, including weight loss coaches and therapy. Heck my (prescription) meta ray bans were paid for in part with FSA funds.
- phil21 1y agoHSA is your money like a retirement account is. It’s one of the most tax advantaged ways to save money. More or less all high income earners who do not have a chronic health issue are better off choosing a HDHP paired with a HSA - especially if the company provides any sort of matching benefit. Keep that account as an additional retirement account and pay out of pocket for most healthcare needs. Think of it also as actual insurance vs. a pre-paid health plan. The math of course changes for folks who are not highly paid, or have expensive chronic health conditions that would result in maxing out the deductible each year. You are likely thinking of a FSA which is use it or lose it.
- epcoa 1y agoHSAs are triple tax advantaged retirement accounts. Not taxed on contribution, gains, or withdrawals for qualified expenses. In the worst case it becomes like a pretax IRA because after age 65 you will not pay a penalty on non qualified expenses - but qualified expenses tend to increase with age. For many it should be their primary retirement account. Even for people with certain chronic conditions (not in perfect health), depending on how good/expensive the PPO offered by the employer, it might still work out better to do HDHP/HSA. You can get as many basically free HSA accounts from Fidelity. An FSA really has nothing to do with an HSA.