An HSA (Healthcare Savings Account) is a proactive approach for future planning and a great way to retain decision-making power when it comes to your health.
An HSA is an alternative method of savings from traditional healthcare plans. With an HSA, an individual or employer must take part in a high deductible, low premium plan, but the money saved can be deposited (PRETAXES) from your income and used for retirement, prescriptions, several types of alternative treatments or health expenses later down the road.
This article spells out the basics and benefits of HSAs (please note, this article was written with employers in mind).
The benefits of an HSA are that the deposited funds are ours to keep, they allow premium savings on high deductible plans and will modify our behavior and slow the spiraling cost of care. Money in a health care savings account can also be used for many things that some group or individual policies wouldn’t pay for such as alternative treatments, lasik, chiropractic and more.
How does an HSA modify our behavior? Consider this example. I give you my credit card and tell you to buy yourself a big screen. What do you do? You would buy the most expensive TV in the shop, because its not your credit card. What if I give you 3K and tell you to buy a big screen? You will probably shop around and buy just what you need. Then you can pocket the savings because it is your $3,000 to keep - no matter your purchase.
This article goes a bit more in depth about HSAs and why they make sense: http://www.hrconsultinggroup.com/articles/Why%20HSAs%20Make%20Sense.php
Taking out an HSA does require more leg work upfront to make sure that your plan is making the most fiscal sense for you. But knowledge is power. Talk to a broker and explore this option. Or shoot me an email and we can chat more about HSAs and other creative insurance solutions.
Take care. Be well.
Dave
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