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A few significant financial things have come up regarding health care.
In 2008 I was on an HDHP and had an HSA for myself. Because DW was pregnant last year at open enrollment, she used her employers coverage which worked out well.
2009 we put whole family on my insurance (HDHP with HSA). The HSA deductable is $1500/$3000 with out of pocket max of $7000. My company contributes $1500 to the HSA if my family is on the plan.
The good news is with maxing the HSA out ($7000) our take home pay went up about $200/mo (I have about $120/month taken out of paychecks for the health insurance as opposed to $500+/mo my wife had last year).
If you make the switch, have high cash on hand for any emergency which comes up in first few months. My HSA gets about $600/mo contributions, but HDHP plans require payment up front. And we found out the hard way that the debit card for the HSA is NOT the same thing as a debit card for an FSA.
If you put $7000 into an FSA, you could ring up $7000 of health bills Jan 1 and the FSA would pay the whole balance, even though 1/24 or 1/26 of the amount has been deposited. With an HSA is works like a bank account. meaning we can only charge what we have deposited, and my employers contributions usually lag a month on deposit (it's not as immediate as seeing a 401k match, for example).
We are incurring $3000 of expenses next week for my twin sons, and wife and I are "scrambling" to see what we can do to pay a $3000 credit card off, then finding a clever way to use the HSA card for exactly $3000 worth of expenses in next 5 months to balance the budget.
We come out ahead with the HSA (max of $7000 was what wife paid in 2008 in premiums, so we come out $2400 ahead for 2009 with the HDHP and most years further ahead).
In addition if you ever check on coverage during open enrollment, verify all statements from people (as to what is covered) in triplicate- get employee #s, requisition #s and call ID #s.
We were told Synagis was an immunization covered at 100% in october. Come January we find we have to pay $3000 out of pocket ($1500 per kid) for those shots and 20% in Feb and 20% in March.
Because the HSA does not have the money in it (up front), it caused wife some stress.
In 2008 I was on an HDHP and had an HSA for myself. Because DW was pregnant last year at open enrollment, she used her employers coverage which worked out well.
2009 we put whole family on my insurance (HDHP with HSA). The HSA deductable is $1500/$3000 with out of pocket max of $7000. My company contributes $1500 to the HSA if my family is on the plan.
The good news is with maxing the HSA out ($7000) our take home pay went up about $200/mo (I have about $120/month taken out of paychecks for the health insurance as opposed to $500+/mo my wife had last year).
If you make the switch, have high cash on hand for any emergency which comes up in first few months. My HSA gets about $600/mo contributions, but HDHP plans require payment up front. And we found out the hard way that the debit card for the HSA is NOT the same thing as a debit card for an FSA.
If you put $7000 into an FSA, you could ring up $7000 of health bills Jan 1 and the FSA would pay the whole balance, even though 1/24 or 1/26 of the amount has been deposited. With an HSA is works like a bank account. meaning we can only charge what we have deposited, and my employers contributions usually lag a month on deposit (it's not as immediate as seeing a 401k match, for example).
We are incurring $3000 of expenses next week for my twin sons, and wife and I are "scrambling" to see what we can do to pay a $3000 credit card off, then finding a clever way to use the HSA card for exactly $3000 worth of expenses in next 5 months to balance the budget.
We come out ahead with the HSA (max of $7000 was what wife paid in 2008 in premiums, so we come out $2400 ahead for 2009 with the HDHP and most years further ahead).
In addition if you ever check on coverage during open enrollment, verify all statements from people (as to what is covered) in triplicate- get employee #s, requisition #s and call ID #s.
We were told Synagis was an immunization covered at 100% in october. Come January we find we have to pay $3000 out of pocket ($1500 per kid) for those shots and 20% in Feb and 20% in March.
Because the HSA does not have the money in it (up front), it caused wife some stress.
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