Hacker News Reader

Comment by throwaway280382 | Hacker News Reader

HSA is deferred for future. I (in 30% tax bracket and pretty healthy) can defer that to future as I only average about two doctor visits per year last 2 years. So, if I put it in FSA, I loose the money since my number of visits to doctor are few and far between. HSA, I can use after I retire also or when I grow older. So for my situation, it is better.

View on HN

Lately, I haven't been seeing the HSA math make sense, at least for a family. The monthly difference between a high deductible plan with a HSA is not cheap enough to cover the deductible gap, and care has gotten a lot more expensive.

Either choice will most likely result in medical bankruptcy without some sort of independent wealth. Best to have socialized healthcare and not have to worry about any of this.

The only time an HSA worked for me was when it was the plan that had a max on out of pocket payments of 10k. I have a diabetic child and that runs to $1200 per month in out of pocket expenses. When I did the math for deductible, copays, etc it worked in my favor.

I’ve seen at least two companies where if you sign up for the high deductible plan, the employer will contribute the full deductible amount to an HSA. I suspect this might become an increasingly common option in the benefits menu.

You can save receipts for medical care forever and claim them against the HSA years later. The money grows tax free so you basically use it as another 401k. After age 65 or if you become disabled you can start pulling money out of a HSA without a medical cost.

I disagree, but upvoted as I do not think you should be downvoted for your opinion. My objections:

First, all employers are different; some provide a big portion of the funding.

Even if not, HSAs can bring huge benefits if executed right. They are a triple tax-free account: pre-tax deposits, tax-free growth, non-taxable distributions. So a healthy high earner who maxes his HSA contributions for several early-career years can come out far ahead. Or a well-off family that can treat it as yet-another tax-advantaged savings vehicle.

But to reap big benefits HSAs have to be planned and executed over many years and impose some limitations, such as on using FSAs. For someone who is not sure they can diligently follow the strategy over many years, HSAs can be a big headache with limited utility. My 2c.

This is highly plan and employer specific.

However, it's not at all unusual to be better off financially with a high deductible plan even if you max out your deductible.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com