MamaBelleRN
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 9, 2017
An FSA is fully funded on Jan 1st of the year you opt in so you don't have to wait for funds to accumulate in order to use it. As long as the date of service is during the plan year, you can use the FSA cc card to pay it. So if Jan 5 you receive a bill for the dental copay with date of service Dec 1 of the previous year, you can't pay that with the card.
The first time I tried it, I estimated low around $800, worried I wouldn't have enough expenses and we plowed through it by May. Then our kids went into braces so that took over the full amount ($2500 per employee) next 2 years. What was great about that was that both of our kids ended up needing braces at the same time (My older ds had straight teeth until around 10th grade.) and we held off a few months until after Jan 1st so we could use the FSA card for the $1500 down payment per child. (Dh signed up at his work too so we had immediate access to $5000.) and the remaining $1000 on each card paid the monthly payments, automatically right to the card, interest free and income tax free. This was completely independent of the medical plan we chose. I don't know if one can do both FSA and HSA.
I work in a hospital that offers very low OOP insurance. Most copays are $25-45 for Blue Cross Personal Choice (no referrals) and there's only a deductible for hospitalization if we go to a hospital outside our network. They do offer an HSA plan but it's very high deductible and seems like it would be great if I was young, single, & healthy and rarely use medical insurance, otherwise I'd be paying a lot OOP. So I either have to take the high OOP plan to use an HSA and pray that some funds will be left to rollover, or go with the high coverage/low OOP plan and FSA the rest.
In the end we all have to do what works for us.
It seems like somewhat of a crapshoot when deciding between a high deductible HSA plan vs a low OOP FSA plan. I (clearly
) never utilized our option for a FSA so assumed it built up over the course of the year like a HSA. We seriously debated switching back to the low OOP plan when they had reenrollment in November. I don’t have the option for benefits as I work less than part time, so our only options are my DH’s plans. We switched to the high deductible in 2014 when we met the out of pocket MAX of $10k in two consecutive years (2012 and 2013). Even though we had 80/20 coverage after our $1,500 family deductible, we had various hospitalizations those years so our 20% responsibility added up quickly. The reason we considered switching back to the low OOP plan this year was 2016 started off as a very low cost year. However, between August 2016- December 2016 we spent $4,900 in medical care. Our baby was born in March 2017, so we had nearly $10k in OOP medical expenses from August 2016- March 2017. We certainly paid more in OOP expenses in 2016 than we would have if we had been on the low OOP 80/20 plan. However, we paid less with our current HSA plan in 2017 than we would have had we been on the low OOP plan. 2017 would have cost us somewhere in the neighborhood of $8k with the 80/20 plan.
I do like the fact we will never have any surprises with medical costs as everything is covered at 100% after we meet our $5k (and his employer contributes $1K over the course of the year). But, as we have already experienced, sometimes those expenses come on the heels of each other. Between the premiums (which are quite a bit lower than their standard low OOP 80/20 plan, but still a cost) and our HSA contributions, it seems like we spend sooo much on healthcare alone
We have to plan to spend the full $5k and contribute as such as meeting our full deductible has happened each year except 2014. BUT that one year of low medical care cost put us well ahead. Therefore, we did not go into any debt despite the high OOP expenses from August 2016 to March 2017.Additionally, we had enough we were contributing each month to use our HSA to pay for our oldest DD’s first set of braces this year. The fact we have been able to stay ahead of medical care costs and we can utilize our HSA for dental and orthodontics is what led us to decide to stay with our high deductible plan. We have five children and all will likely need orthodontic care. The tax benefits in addition to the rollover benefit of the HSA is what keeps us with this plan. But, it is certainly something we seem to debate each year. I am really hoping this year will be one of HSA building vs high usage
, but time will tell!
However, this year my April baby was good to go, so I got the full credit for both kids.
That kitty will have a much happier life with you!
I don't understand how people are okay with themselves doing that.
