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Originally Posted by kutulu
Supposedly, this HSA lets you keep all the money you put into it with no risk of losing it. I still hate the idea because it is a gamble. Our deductibles would be 2500 ind/5000 fam and teh out of pocket would be 2000 ind/4000 fam. Right now we have a 500/1500 ded and 1500/3000 out of pocket. This means that our maximum annual responsibility would be 4500/9000 vs a current max of 2000/4500, a difference of 2500/4500.
The high deductible plan saves me 200/mo. If I take all of that savings and put that in my HSA account it would take me 13 months to make up that difference for the individual expenses and another 10 months to get 4500 in the account. That's almost two years. Only then can I stop putting money into my HSA and start enjoying the reduced rates. I also have to hope that in the next two years we will have no emergencies that require us to go to the hospital. Furthermore, we will probably have another child in that time so we'll end up using that money and I'll have to start over again.
The only people being helped out by this would be the the owner and his wife. All the employees see this and they are all pissed.
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You are right that your employer is benefitting by offering an HSA plan, but you may realize more benefits from it yourself as well. All insurance is a gamble. You are betting that you are going to get sick or need care. I realize that you have to examine the situation from a worst-case-scenario point of view, but really, are you likely to spend $9000 in the next year on health care for you and your family. If you are young and in good health, the answer should be no. Hopefully you will all continue to be in good health and the only visits to the doctor will be for annual check-ups. That might run you just a few hundred dollars.
You mentioned that you are planning on having another child soon. This is an expense that you can plan for. If you put money into your HSA, it goes in tax free. That is an immediate bonus! If you are like most people, you are currently paying your medical deductibles with after tax dollars. Only if you incur some serious medical bills are you able to claim a deduction.
The real benefit of HSAs is that they use pre-tax earnings and they basically act as an IRA if you don't use the money. You mention that it will take you a certain period of time until you have enough money in your HSA that you can stop making contributions to it. Why would you ever stop making contributions to it?!?! Once you have enough money in the account, you can use it as a secondary investment account and grow the money that you are now giving away to an insurance company. You would be in control of your health care dollars in a very powerful way.
The decision is yours to make of course, but if my employer offered an HSA, I would jump at it in a second.