Tuesday, April 13, 2004
Budget Living columnist recommends HSAs
["HSA hype is brewing," Clark Howard Show Notes, 24 February 2004.]
In the latest issue of Budget Living, columnist and radio show host Clark Howard provides some pointers on how health savings accounts work:
Anyone under 65 with a high-deductible insurance plan can open one as long as the plan's deductible is, at minimum $1000 for an individual and $2000 for a family. Each year you will be able to contribute - in pretax dollars - the amount of your deductible as long as it doesn't exceed $2000 for an individual or $5150 for a family. If along the way you rack up garden-variety health expenses (checkups, prescriptions, etc.), you may withdraw money from your HSA to pay for them. Other pluses: Since an HSA is a savings plan and not restrictive insurance, you can choose your physicians. And if you don't use the money you've deposited in one year, it rolls over to the next. If you have a large medical expense your insurance kicks in for expenses that exceed the deductible. The only downside is that HSAs aren't yet widely available, but are expected to be by June.
Howard advises the reader to check out Budget Living's website in June for a list of institutions that offer plans.
On his radio show, Howard also provided some perspective on why these accounts are necessary:
There are some people who don’t like HSAs, of course. They think all of the money is being funneled to the rich. But, it’s better than our current system. Of all the economic output in the United States, 15 cents on every dollar goes to health care. That’s about 50 percent higher than any developed country. So, we are basically sapping our nation’s economic growth with the enormous amount of money going to health care.
(Thanks to George Pearson for this story)
["HSA hype is brewing," Clark Howard Show Notes, 24 February 2004.]
In the latest issue of Budget Living, columnist and radio show host Clark Howard provides some pointers on how health savings accounts work:
Anyone under 65 with a high-deductible insurance plan can open one as long as the plan's deductible is, at minimum $1000 for an individual and $2000 for a family. Each year you will be able to contribute - in pretax dollars - the amount of your deductible as long as it doesn't exceed $2000 for an individual or $5150 for a family. If along the way you rack up garden-variety health expenses (checkups, prescriptions, etc.), you may withdraw money from your HSA to pay for them. Other pluses: Since an HSA is a savings plan and not restrictive insurance, you can choose your physicians. And if you don't use the money you've deposited in one year, it rolls over to the next. If you have a large medical expense your insurance kicks in for expenses that exceed the deductible. The only downside is that HSAs aren't yet widely available, but are expected to be by June.
Howard advises the reader to check out Budget Living's website in June for a list of institutions that offer plans.
On his radio show, Howard also provided some perspective on why these accounts are necessary:
There are some people who don’t like HSAs, of course. They think all of the money is being funneled to the rich. But, it’s better than our current system. Of all the economic output in the United States, 15 cents on every dollar goes to health care. That’s about 50 percent higher than any developed country. So, we are basically sapping our nation’s economic growth with the enormous amount of money going to health care.
(Thanks to George Pearson for this story)
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