HSA question (medical, plan, deductible, monthly)

[lititzman2003]

My wife has a Health Savings Account from her previous employer and was buying health insurance through COBRA. Due to the high monthly premium she is shopping for her own insurance. We are finding that not all plans from different providers allow her HSA to be eligible to be part of the plan. Is this right?
Thanks.

[golfgal]

Originally Posted by lititzman2003

My wife has a Health Savings Account from her previous employer and was buying health insurance through COBRA. Due to the high monthly premium she is shopping for her own insurance. We are finding that not all plans from different providers allow her HSA to be eligible to be part of the plan. Is this right?
Thanks.

Yes. HSA's are only available to tax-qualified high deductible plans. There plans that have high-deductibles that are not tax-qualified however. There are other rules such as having a common deductible that makes specific plans tax-qualified.

She can still use the funds in her HSA to pay for medical expenses even if she doesn't get a qualified plan, she just can't add more money to that account until she is on a qualified plan. She can not use the HSA funds to pay her insurance premiums if she is younger than 65 though.

[lititzman2003]

Originally Posted by golfgal

Yes. HSA's are only available to tax-qualified high deductible plans. There plans that have high-deductibles that are not tax-qualified however. There are other rules such as having a common deductible that makes specific plans tax-qualified.

She can still use the funds in her HSA to pay for medical expenses even if she doesn't get a qualified plan, she just can't add more money to that account until she is on a qualified plan. She can not use the HSA funds to pay her insurance premiums if she is younger than 65 though.

Thank you; this is very helpful. Now we chose a plan that works for us.