HSA's And Your Taxes

Health care coverage as we have been use to is becoming obsolete. You should consider Health Savings Accounts as an alternate to traditional health care coverage.

As a result, employers are looking to their employees to take more responsibility for how they use their healthcare.

Health Savings Accounts (HSA) are being offered as an affordable solution. HSA's have some very friendly tax advantages. Qualified contributions are tax deductible and the qualified withdrawals are tax free. At the same time, they force the taxpayer to be more responsible about how they spend their healthcare dollars.

Ok so can everyone own an HSA? The answer is no. HDHP's, which are qualifying deductible health plans are an important limitation. You must be covered by one of these plans. Once a taxpayer opens an HAS and the fund has a balance, the taxpayer may use it for qualified medical expenses regardless whether the taxpayer remains qualified to make contributions.

Not everyone can open an HSA. The most important limitation is that individuals must be covered under a qualifying "high-deductible" health insurance plan (HDHP) to open an HSA and make contributions to it. Once an HSA has a balance, however, it may be used for qualified medical expenses regardless of whether the individual participant remains qualified to make contributions.

In addition to requiring participation in a high-deductible medical plan, individuals contributing to an HSA also cannot have any disqualifying coverage. The first of each month, month to month wi how coverage is determined for this purpose. This is a great feature. It does allow you the flexibility you need, the ability to make contributions in any month of any single tax year.

A taxpayer who is enrolled in Medicare Part A or Part B cannot participate in an HSA because it is a form of disqualifying coverage. However, you are still eligible to make contributions if you haven't enrolled for Medicare yet, even if you are eligible for Medicare.

Additionally, the taxpayer cannot have received any medical benefits from the Veterans Administration for the preceding three months. Furthermore, active and retired members of the military cannot make HSA contributions if they receive benefits under TRICARE, because it does not meet the minimum annual deductible requirement for an HDHP.

I have tried to give a brief overview of HAS accounts in this article. I hope this article has given you some ideas, and I encourage everyone to further research the advantages and limitations of HSA accounts. If you properly manage your healthcare, you can really realize substantial savings.

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