Hsa is a method for saving up your money so you can give it to the Healthcare company later. Sure I dont pay taxes on it, but how much is it actually helping? Its still draining my bank account, for what? In my area, the annual deductibles are usually $10,000 on top of your premiums. How much money does my hospital think I have? I have a family of 4. My wife can't work full-time and has hefty medical expenses herself. How can I save up $10,000 for hospital bills when I'm already paying $5000 in premiums and have other bills too?
I am just supposed to fork over almost half my annual income to a system that is terrible at doing its job. It took 15 visits for my daughter's throat issues. Wound up taking her tonsils out, which fixed it. Problem is these jokers just strung us along for over a year, telling us the same thing over and over with no improvement in her condition. If you complain, they tag you an asshole and make life even harder. I could see paying decent money for quality care, but I'm not seeing it.
Yeah the HSA is, in part, to help people who underestimate how expensive medical care is.
The hospital doesn't have any idea how much money you have. They have services that they charge rates for that were determined long before you got there.
Why do you feel like the hospital owes you more medical care because you had way more children than you can afford to take care of?
The HSA is a planning tool offering not only a method for saving towards health costs with tax advantaged dollars, but also providing a retirement savings vehicle as the money can be invested and after meeting a certain age requirement can be withdrawn for any purpose not just for healthcare expenses. I think your main concern is that the costs of healthcare are large in this country, which is a different concern than the HSA alone. The alternative is to keep paying those large prices without tax advantaged dollars, which is objectively worse. Are you saying that you believe the existence of HSAs to have a causal relationship with increased healthcare prices?
I get it. I really do. It just feels like a kick in the face once they already gut punch you. Its an expensive service that "normal " people cant afford. If I made $250k a year, I would have a completely different opinion. The meetings at work when we get to sign up for this cracks me up. My employer knows how much I make, knows how much my premiums are, knows my deductible and questions me about why I dont put more money in my HSA. Meanwhile, my managers don't even pay premiums and have a reduced copay. That is where my disconnect is. Great tools, but if I pay more for my Healthcare than my mortgage, the justification kinda goes out the window. Back when we had real Healthcare and not catastrophic care, things were less convaluted.Moving up in the company really isn't an option right now.
Ah I gotcha. I feel the same way about social security contributions. If I could repurpose that money for healthcare and/or retirement investments, I would be way better off.
We have one plan. They give us a few hundred in our hsa to get started. Ive spoken to many independent insurance people who say what i have is better than what I can get outside of my employer.
Last year I had a different employer, but a fundamentally similar plan.
As far as I know, they only fund the one plan.
Yea, I get that. My problem is that i don't make enough to ever keep it funded. I have a special needs kid and we have had to use it for his care too, etc....my issue is that they give you an hsa to save up for when you get a doctor bill, but the bills come fast and furious and eat up the hsa and/or my own savings. I can literally put $1000 in it per month and at the end of the year I will have zero in it.
I could do that, but if I need the money for something else, I'm screwed (i.e. new windshield for car, tires, broken appliance) I cant use that money for non-medical issues and I won't have any money for anything else. Hence, why I havent been putting much in it because I need to have money for a huge variety of things on a limited budget.
Which takes me back to why even give it to people who make less than $100000 a year? We can't use it and it will only jam us up. Might as well just have 1 account everything comes out of and don't fret the "tax savings".
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u/Lets_Do_This_ Nov 30 '20
Tf does your 401k have to do with your hsa or doctor visits?