<p>After being enrolled in an HMO my entire working career, my employer has drastically changed our options for this year. We have the choice between a PPO (preferred provider) or a Health Savings Account. Both plans have hefty deductibles for in network providers and even larger deductibles for out of network providers. Have any of you enrolled in a Health Savings Account plan? Any pitfalls to look for? Thank you so much for your help!</p>
<p>I’m no expert, but when I was doing some reading about these options (I was facing the same choice) I learned two important things to consider are your age and general health. If you have fairly regular health issues (even when they’re not directly related) or you are “of a certain age” you can often be better off with the regular PPO coverage. It’s a judgment call. I decided to stick with the PPO, even with it’s higher monthly premiums, because although I’m very healthy I am 55 years old, and we have a modest income and couldn’t contribute much to a HSA. The chances you’ll have significant health problems increases with age, but also you don’t have time to accumulate much in your health savings account. It could easily be tapped out with the first little thing.</p>
<p>My brother, on the hand, is a year older, also healthy, and he opted for the health savings account because he has much more money available to dedicate to the account which makes it a good alternative.</p>
<p>Humm. HSA’s are usually coupled with high deductible plans. They are not usually free standing in corporate plans. In my opinion, the main purpose of health insurance is to cover the biggies that can financially ruin you. You can find “deals” in routine health care and with vigilance take care of the minor ailments many times. But wehn you have something that needs heavy duty specialized medical care, you have to go to the big guns, and that is the big fear in my life. So I think coverage of those things is very, very important. What some families do is take a high deductible insurance and contribute to the HSA so that the deductibles and co pays can be paid with before tax monies instead of going with an HMO where nearly everything is covered but there are restrictions on where you can go for care. I have a PPO for our family combined with the HSA, and in a year when medical expenses are low, those monies sheltered can be used for OTC medications, vitamins, glasses, contacts, dental bills and things like that. In bad year, they pay the deductibles and copays.</p>
<p>I use an HSA with my individual high deductible plan. If you have the funds to put into the plan, it makes a lot of sense. You can basically use the funds for any medical expenses. Some of these expenses might not even be covered by your insurance like chiropractic, eye glasses and contacts, orthotics, and vitamins. I tend to not use the account that much and have built the account to nice little nest egg. This can be converted to an IRA at age 65.</p>
<p>One thing to watch out for is how the organization handles it. Some places keep it if you don’t use it or do some other thing where you do not get it back. A sort of use it or lose it. The best time to do these sorts of accounts if if you know you will have the medical expenses (or other qualifying expensese – so check these things out). Apparently, there is a fair amount of variation.</p>
<p>A Health Savings Account is not the same as a Flexible Spending Account. The FSA is use-it-or-lose-it; an HSA gets carried over year after year and earns investment income.</p>
<p>I had HSA with PPO the first year my company offered this. It was too good to turn it down. My family managed not to get seriously sick so that was a good thing. When they got sick with minor stuff, I googled and treat them at home. However, this year I’m back to a regular plan and get all of the tests that my doctors recommend before I’ll get back to HSA next year. I might ping pong back and forth to HSA high deductible every other year.</p>
<p>I don’t know which plan you should choose but I do want to say that sometime life happens. My H who is pretty healthy and did go to the doctor regularly had a heart attack this past March. We had no idea, his cholesteral levels were low, he was overweight but not obese, exercised regularly and no family history. He still had a heart attack before he was 50. We had a PPO and a flexible savings account and it still was very expensive. </p>
<p>My H is doing great but you never know when a medical emergency will happen.</p>
<p>One thing to consider is how many people are on your plan. For a single young adult or married couple who is healthy a health savings account may be a great plan.<br>
If you have 4 kids or anyone who has a chronic health problem, i.e. diabetes, asthma etc; you may want to strongly consider the PPO.</p>
<p>You will assume more risk with a heath savings account, just don’t assume more risk than what you can comfortably afford. You should look at several possibilities and do the math - include what would happen if a child had an appendicitis (surgery and overnight stay) and one tore and ACL and needed surgery and lots of physical therapy - stuff like that.</p>
<p>Hopefully, if you pick the PPO you can also contribute to a FSA - they are wonderful for paying deductibles etc…</p>
<p>We have a PPO combined with an FSA. We loathe the extra paperwork, but it makes sense to have the FSA for all the stuff the PPO doesn’t cover - co-pays, a good portion of the dental, eyeglasses and contacts. We never get the amount right. I need new glasses, but will wait to January to get them because we used up all our HSA money this year after having put in too much the year before. I soooo want a single payer health plan like I had in Germany.</p>
<p>Thank you all so much for your input. I was leaning towards the PPO, as I am conservative, but the HSA with the high deductible may be worth the small risk. My employer will contribute up to a $800 match for the family HSA account. So far we are “of certain age” but no known health risks (knocking on wood very loudly here!)</p>
<p>If you have an HSA the money contributed does NOT get added back in to AGI for FAFSA 
the way an IRA contribution would.</p>
<p>HSAs are good for relatively healthy low maintenance people; even with one semi high maintenance kid (asthma, sports injuries, etc) I never spent as much as the other plans would cost- but I am looking at self-employed, not group, big difference, I think</p>
<p>It is very nice to be able to use the HSA funds for non-covered items, like orthodontia- not that using it let’s it build up! Also, the HSA fund $ can go towards medicare supplement premiums after age 65</p>
<p>Bumping this up - my school district started this last year, but I thought that it might be a strain if we had a big medical expense while DS is in college, although there is a maximum of $4500 costs to me. (DH covers the kids under his insurance, so we are just talking about my insurance…) Is anyone SURE that the HSA money doesn’t get added in to assets for PROFILE schools, too? Has anyone had experience with this type of plan? It’s a Health Savings Account plan, with a max out-of-pocket cost of $4500 a year, and the school district will pay the plan plus about $2100 a year towards the HSA savings account…</p>
<p>Hi our insurance has changed to HSA this year. I am not certain if the money your employer deposits in your account would affect profile schools. So far the HSA has worked well. We have just had a few expenses which we paid for out of pocket. If the expenses add up to a greater sum, then we will submit for reimbursement.</p>
<p>I do not know how the funds deposited by your employer are considered, but if you are self-employed, the value of the HSA account is NOT an asset for FAFSA and the contribution for the current year comes off on page 1 BEFORE AGI so it is helpful for lowering income. I don’t know about Profile and every school can add their own questions to Profile, so you may need to check a few potential schools just to see.</p>