April 19, 2009

Health Savings Account (HSA)

My wife's has severe allergies and recently began getting weekly injections to help. It's not cheap, so she opened a Health Savings Account (HSA) through her new company.

The HSA is a tax-advantaged medical savings account that allows her to pay for the shots (and other medical costs) using pretax dollars. Unlike a Flexible Spending Account, funds roll over and accumulate year over year if not spent.

She's having $50/check taken out and pays for the doctor visits using a "debit" type card. The HSA should help save us a good chunk of money on the injections.

4 comments:

Kristy @ Master Your Card said...

That's an awesome idea! While both plans have their advantages and disadvantages, I definitely prefer the HSA to the Flexible Spending Account for the rollover reason. My company doesn't offer an HSA or I'd consider it because I do have a planned surgery coming up, but the last time I did the Flex account, I ended up spending about $200 in band-aids, IB Profren, and cough drops. I think I filled my medicine cabinet and that of like 3 of my friends.

Anyway, I hope the shots continue to work. I've been fortunate and not had to worry about allergies, but I'm one of the lucky few. They say there's two types of people in Texas...those that have allergies and those that get them. Going on 17 years and I haven't got them yet. Keep your fingers crossed!

J. Money said...

good idea. i hate allergies and have yet to find a way to stop them or any medicine that works....or that at least keeps me awake ;)

I may have to check into injections, never heard of that one before.

1MansMoney said...

Kristy- I'm lucky not to have allergies either. My wife's allergies are really bad. I hope the shots help.

J.Money- My wife has tried everything too, so hopefully the shots work. I takes quite a while for them to begin taking effect.

-1MansMoney

Jerry said...

My last job's insurance offered a HSA as part of the package and I really loved it. We used it for all health related purchases that weren't at the doctor's office. We'll see where this new health care plan will lead us.
Jerry