In reality if you have a family that needs to actually use healthcare, then the plans are very expensive, difficult to manage, and problematic. The US healthcare system is not designed to be consumer driven. This a problem, and largely the cause of the skyrocketing costs, when a third party is responsible for paying the consumer has no incentive to shop and compare. This is why in theory the HSA plan is a great idea, however in practice hospitals are not set up to negotiate fee’s with patients, and a patient in need of HC does not always have the luxury of time to shop around.

For routine and preventative care, HSA’s are downright dangerous, because they incentivise a patient to put off or skip care because of the cost, tax free or not, it hurts to spend $500 for a bottle of pills, or an MRI, or $300 for an office visit if you have a problem.

When I was single and had no need for healthcare, the HSA plan made great sense, but now that I have a family the high deductible is killing us, and my company doesn’t offer a traditional plan to out of state employees.

This is actually incorrect. It is only 100% tax-free if used for qualified medical expenses. If you use it past the age of 65 for non-qualified expenses you will pay taxes on the entire withdrawal amount.

That being said, it is still a great retirement savings option as most people will have medical costs in retirement that they can tap into this account to cover tax-free.

I like the idea of an HSA, but was told that I couldn’t have one if my spouse has one, and I have no idea if the “HealthFund” my husband may get is considered an HSA.

I hate insurance plans and jargon…

The above article is spot on.

We did, in fact, have a couple of medical problems, and we found that many doctors and other medical service providers are willing to reduce their fees knowing we would pay them on the spot for their services. In some cases, the fee reduction exceeded 50%. Like most of us, they simply don’t like all the bureaucracy involved in third party payors; plus, they don’t like having to wait sometimes as much as 3-4 months to get paid for their services under many insurance plans.

Also, all sorts of medically related costs can be paid out of the funds in the HSA that are not often covered by typical insurance plans such as dental bills, glasses, hearing aids, over-the-counter drugs/supplies, etc.

Compared to all the alternatives (other than being rich like Bill Gates), there is no better way for most of us to plan ahead for medical and related costs … not to mention retirement.