Employer only offering high-deductible HSA in the future

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My company switched to a high deductible plan and charged us more a lot more.

Sounds like your company is running out of money, so start looking for another job
If your company is profitable, but just being cheap, then I hope their compensation has increased to make sticking around worth it.
I would seriously consider leaving, unless the money was good

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My company switched to a high deductible plan and charged us more a lot more.

Sounds like your company is running out of money, so start looking for another job
If your company is profitable, but just being cheap, then I hope their compensation has increased to make sticking around worth it.
I would seriously consider leaving, unless the money was good

One of the "benefits" of being acquired by another company. Economy not good so they've by and large gotten away with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The pros are a lower monthly deductible and the opportunity to set aside money (I think $6250 for family, I have to set mine up this month) on a tax deferred basis. You are not required to use the HSA for your health expenses and no loss of unused funds so you can let it continue to grow on a tax deferred basis, which is what we plan to do.

Cons are high deductibles (ours is $5200) which means you are paying most of your expenses out of pocket. Of course if you use the HSA funds you can offset that. I think they come with cards that make it easy to use the HSA funds.

We have found that the lower premium offsets the high deductible so we're better off with the arrangement. But it would depend a lot on your use of health care and how much your employer contributes to the premium.

This has been our experience with our HSA. Before switching, refill all your prescriptions and get as many doctor visits done. That stuff will cost lots more after a switch to HSA. With the HSA we pay $400 per month and about $100 for each prescription, $50/ doctor visit. This is still less than the $800/month we were paying prior to switching to HSA. We're self-employed.

[Anonymous]

Another con is that contributions to an HSA are not front-loaded like in an FSA which stinks if something expensive comes up early in the year. If you get a tax refund, or have savings to live off of, put 1 or 2 whole paychecks into the HSA as early in that first year as you can. After that year you can just do month to month contributions.

[Anonymous]

Always try to do HSA contribution via payroll if you earn under 120k. It's one of the few ways to avoid FICA.

[Anonymous]

Oh, and technically you can use taxed money to pay for medical expenses, saving the receipts to reimburse yourself later from the untaxed HSA, theoretically giving you more time for tax-free growth. And if you are remarkably healthy and accumulate a large amount of money over the years, the whole thing basically turns into an IRA when you hit 69.5 years, so no worries.

[Anonymous]

Works for wealthy and healthy. Most health care consumers are not that. For them this is supposedly a discount plan with a pay as you go system. Which explains why a third of bankrupcies are because of health related debt

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My company switched to a high deductible plan and charged us more a lot more.

Sounds like your company is running out of money, so start looking for another job
If your company is profitable, but just being cheap, then I hope their compensation has increased to make sticking around worth it.
I would seriously consider leaving, unless the money was good

One of the "benefits" of being acquired by another company. Economy not good so they've by and large gotten away with it.

Yep, we got acquired by another company and then they got bought by and even bigger company. They are cutting every one of our benefits (health, dental, parking, training), eliminated bonuses and capped pay increases to 2% for the last 3 years. The high-deductible health plan was just one more piece of the sh-t sandwich.

[Anonymous]

High-deductible plans have been growing in popularity for years. It isn't necessarily a sign your company is in trouble at all. Its a sign your company has bought into the whole 'consumer directed health care' mantra. Aren't you a lot more careful about going to the doctor when you know you'll be paying for it yourself? That's the idea. Of course, there is the possibility that you aren't going when you should be.
Recent research says the first year you'll really cut back, but after that you'll use just as much care as anyone else.

[Anonymous]

One thing to consider is whether most of your medical expenses are in network or out of network. Our out of network deductible ($4800) is twice the in network deductible ($2400). Things can add up pretty quickly and sometimes providers leave your network (one of mine did).