health insurance questions, need answers fast?
Heather Nicole asked:
we have a choice to get aetna pos II with HSA, question one: is hsa worth it? question two, we have to put in how much we want to add, read below
we have a choice to get aetna pos II with HSA, question one: is hsa worth it? question two, we have to put in how much we want to add, read below
Enter 0 if you don’t want to contribute.
$ ($1 – $3,950)
A contribution should only be made in the Health Savings Account if you elected the Medical Coverage with HSA option in the Medical plan.
Remember, if you’re enrolled in the Medical Coverage with HSA, TXU makes an annual contribution to your HSA of $1,800 (You + Spouse, You + Child(ren), or You + Family). You’ll also need to account for any additional incentive contributions TXU makes to your HSA this year:
# $50 for completion of health risk assessment
# $200 for actively participating in and graduating from a health coaching program
what should we do, we also have a choice of a plan without hsa
the deductible is 3600 for the family
Patricia
You don’t mention what the high-deductible amount is for your medical plan. Under a high-deductible plan, you’re going to be responsible for paying ALL of your medical costs up to that deductible amount. The HSA will help, ESPECIALLY if your company is chipping in with the first $1,800 AND gives you more for doing healthy things. The best thing about the HSA is that you don’t lose the money that isn’t spent — you can keep adding to it and whatever you don’t use can keep growing as long as you want. I have had one for almost three years and it’s been a good thing for my family, but we’ve been pretty healthy, too, so we’ve never reached our high deductible ($3,000). It’s actually taken this long for us to build up our account to that level, so if we did have an illness or we needed surgery, we could handle it. My company doesn’t contribute to the account, so yours sounds like a pretty attractive plan. Just remember that you’re going to be paying all the medical bills yourself (none of that co-pay stuff). Based on our experience, I say go for it!
The HSA is the best thing to happen to health insurance in along time. You should go with the HSA and you should also deposit at least $1,800 of your own money into the account. If you need to pay for orthodontics any time soon I would make the full $3,950 contribution if you can afford it.
If you don’t use the HSA funds they roll over for future use. You should also have access to invest in mutual funds in your HSA account, this makes it even better than you retirement plan. because you can use the HSA money to pay for many qualified expenses other than your deductible. For example dental, vision, orthodontics. Full details are here–savings–accounts.com/qualified-expenses.htm
If you ever changes jobs and loose your high deductible plan you can always keep the HSA and spend the money tax free on qualified expenses. You just won’t be able to contribute to the HSA unless you have a qualified high deductible plan.
There are some great benefits to an HSA. Some of the benefits include:
1. Lower monthly premiums for the high deductible health plan.
2. Comprehensive coverage in case of a large medical bill.
3. An above the line tax deduction for all money put into the HSA.
4. The money in the HSA grows tax free.
5. The money in the HSA rolls over from year to year.
Here is some more information on HSA’s: