Educate me on HSA HDHC Plans

Joined
Jun 26, 2003
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Illinois
It's open enrollment season and I'm sorting through my options.

Been a little concerned about jumping to an HSA and High Deductible Health Coverage plan.

Over 55, and I still cover one adult "child" who is under 26.

My deductible goes from $600 Individual / $1200 "family" to $1500 Individual / $2800 family, but it's a aggregate deductible in the HDHC plan vs Embedded which means if a covered person hits the deductible, it goes to full pay per individual if that individual hits their deductible. Neither my daughter nor I hit our deductibles.

My employer will kick in $1000 each year to start things rolling. Meaning I can add up to $7300, if I understand.

What each plan pays seems to be pretty close one to another. However, the deductible is different.

oilBabe has her own coverage through her school district as it makes more sense to keep her coverage there to build wage history for her pension. She's the one with the biggest expenses compared to me and my daughter, so unless something happens to one of us, on the surface, it seems to be a good deal.

OOP max for each is $2000 Ind/ $4000 family with my current plan and $2600 Individual and $4000 Employee + Children assuming in network. Out of network goes to 5k/10 vs 5200/8000 for the each.

Another supposed benefit of the HSA is that it is not only pre Income Tax, just like an FSA but it's also pre FICA taxes, so that's an extra 7.65% kicker. Meaning contributions to the HSA have an additional 7.65% discount when you consider the pre-FICA tax income going into them vs FSA contributions.

And, one can park the money in an investment account once the balance is over $5k. There is an S&P500 index fund option with a less than 1/10th of a percent fee.

Yes, I understand the risks of investing.

I'm looking for feedback from those who have moved to such a plan. Especially those with a similar situation, 55 and older, reasonably good health, etc.

Is there anything I'm missing and or not considering here?

Thanks in advance.

Edited to add: The premiums for the HDHC plan are about 1/2 of what I pay for my PPO plan described, meaning much of the money going to the HSA would come from the premium delta plus what we are contributing to FSA accounts already.
 
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I've Been on a HDHC/HSA plan for about 5 years since I retired. In my case the cost savings in premiums more than paid for the higher deductible and the only "risk" of the move was being exposed to the higher maximum out of pocket which was about doubled. In your case the max OOP doesn't even seem to be that much different. You didn't mention drug coverage but that might be significant. At our company, people with a lot of medicines or taking insulin had to make a spreadsheet and price each drug with insurance coverage vs tax free copay to decide which way to go because the drug coverage between plans was so different.

For us the HSA has been much more useful than the Flex Savings Account that our 80/20 plan offered, mainly because it rolls over from one year to the next and it isn't a use it or lose it case which our FSA account was. I also like how flexible the HSA is on usage as the rules even allow you to reimburse yourself for things like travel expenses if you have to travel out of town for medical care.

We are also relatively healthy and a small family of 3 and I don't think we have had a single year that the HDHC/HSA didn't work out to be the better option for us. Two thumbs up.
 
I've Been on a HDHC/HSA plan for about 5 years since I retired. In my case the cost savings in premiums more than paid for the higher deductible and the only "risk" of the move was being exposed to the higher maximum out of pocket which was about doubled. In your case the max OOP doesn't even seem to be that much different. You didn't mention drug coverage but that might be significant. At our company, people with a lot of medicines or taking insulin had to make a spreadsheet and price each drug with insurance coverage vs tax free copay to decide which way to go because the drug coverage between plans was so different.

For us the HSA has been much more useful than the Flex Savings Account that our 80/20 plan offered, mainly because it rolls over from one year to the next and it isn't a use it or lose it case which our FSA account was. I also like how flexible the HSA is on usage as the rules even allow you to reimburse yourself for things like travel expenses if you have to travel out of town for medical care.

We are also relatively healthy and a small family of 3 and I don't think we have had a single year that the HDHC/HSA didn't work out to be the better option for us. Two thumbs up.
Just a follow up, one month in.

Took about 3 weeks for the first money to start showing up in my HSA. The company's kicker and my contribution hit my account on or about the 20th give or take.


Drug coverage is better, not that I'm on anything expensive or exotic. The HDHC is a step up in coverage compared to the mid-tier plan I had before.

I know it's only a month in, but so far, it's been a net positive.

I was even able to get a reimbursement for the @Home tests I bought to test if oilBabe or I had the plague. So far, we've been plague free.
 
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