If you get heath insurance from your employer, you can probably take advantage of a flexible spending account (FSA) to cut your taxable income and lessen the impact of medical bills that sting you throughout the year. The way things usually work is to require you to commit a dollar figure to the account, then use the money to pay medical bills as they arise. Since the money comes out of your check, you’re never taxed on the amount.
As noted in evaluations of FSAs by Her Every Cent Counts and
MSN Money, using the accounts can be tricky, but provide enough financial benefits to be worthwhile.
The downside is you typically lose unused FSA funds when the year ends. If you’ve currently got money left in an FSA, you’ll want to do your best to spend it before Jan. 1. It’s also smart to use your medical expenditures this year to determine how much to put in next year.
HSA, FSA, and the Cost of Being Healthy [Her Every Cent Counts]
Last-minute moves to cut your taxes [MSN Money]
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I should put money aside for medical bills, just so I won’t have medical bills. Since that is how it would work for me.
There are worse things in the world than being healthy
I never understood this – they offered this at the last two coporate monkey jobs I had – you put money away for medical, it can ONLY be used for medical – if you don’t need it – it’s gone for good.
Sounds like the bastard child of insurance, I’LL HAVE NO PART IN THIS.
I could be wrong, and that’s fine but that’s how it was always described for me.
If you’re elderly or sickly, this is the route for you – but the average 20-30 something with this option, who lives a normal, healthy life style… I’d put that money in something else…. like pre paying my MMO for the year.
on a side note: I WAS told it can be used at drug stores, not sure if they applied to everything sold at places like walgreens… and if so – I might consider it in the future.
It depends on the plan, but if you can use it at a drug store, it’s only for medical stuff, like pain killers and bandaids and other OTC stuff. However, I even recall that a plan I used to have would include that sort of stuff from a drug store … but then they stopped doing it. So, I could no longer use my flexible spending account on Advil. Just doctor visits and prescriptions. It stopped being useful or worth it at that point. But it does depend on the plan. Some are more … flexible than others, haha. A friend of mine’s plan, for instance, just gives him a debit card, and it’s kind of on the honor system unless they decide to do an audit.
there was a change in the federal law about FSA spending from 2010 to 2011 [as in, stuff you could use it for in 2010 was no longer permitted in 2011]
so no more advil or cold medicine but bandages and neosporin are still ok.
That’s really weird, how do they draw the line on that.
I’d use a band aid more frequently than nyquil.
I swear the people who come up with these limitations are twats… who don’t even have an FSA – because they have enough money to send their assistants to get this stuff for them.
Amirite or amirite.
it’s because of the taxes. if people can spend the FSA $$ on nyquil and tylenol then they put more in their FSA and a slightly smaller amount of income tax is collected. so by removing a couple of small categories from the list of eligible expenses, people put say… $100 less in their FSA this year and paid income tax on it instead. it adds up
Not true. FSAs still cover these items… you just need a prescription. It’s just an extra hoop to jump through.
Part of the health care reform passed last year prohibited the use of flex spending accounts or health savings accounts on over-the-counter drugs effective January 1, 2011.
I think you can still get OTCs reimbursed if you have a doctor write a prescription for it. Get it refillable and you only have to send the prescription in to the plan administrators once a year. Only drugs, you can still get back braces, bandaids, first aid kits, ace bandages, crutches, etc. At least on our plan. We both got dental work and eye glasses this year reimbursed. Also, mileage for out of town doctor visits, 23.5¢/mile.
On 4 OTCs we take regularly we got the doctor to switch us to a prescription product because the copay was less than we were spending for the OTCs.
If you think thats what they described to you, I feel sorry for your parents. FSA’s are a way of paying for predictable medical expenses for the coming year. That includes copays, deductibles and other non-covered expenses. This may include teeth cleaning, glasses, prescription copys, etc. But go ahead and continue to take pride in your willful ignorance.
My parents? LOL I’m 30 – this was at my last two jobs.
It was never appealing or clear and in retrospect, I never needed them when it came time for the year end tally.
You know, “wow, I’m glad I didn’t do that!”
You’ve got issues, I wasn’t dogging anyone.
You said “Sounds like the bastard child of insurance, I’LL HAVE NO PART IN THIS.”
I feel sorry for the money your parents wasted on your education.
No, hon. You aren’t making any sense.
FSA works a lot like insurance – it’s money “in case something happens.”
If you’re already paying for insurance, it’s another expenditure on top of that. I will have no part in that.
But thanks for assuming about my education and that my parents may have spent anything on it… or maybe you’d like to try the route of, “the education you paid for yourself.”
I’m an adult with sound financial decisions. Choosing not to put into an FSA and why, is one of them.
If you don’t agree that’s fine – but I explain it in a “light of heart” manner that you (and only you, so far) seem to take offense to.
So I’d like to sum up this rebuttal with….
u mad bro?
“If you’re already paying for insurance, it’s another expenditure on top of that. I will have no part in that.”
No, it’s not. It’s money put aside because insurance doesn’t cover 100% of your medical or medical-related costs. FSA accounts can be used to pay for copays for doctor’s visits, contact lenses, glasses, birth control, etc etc. With a dr’s letter, they can even be used to pay for gym memberships.
I have excellent insurance. I’m healthy. I put money into my FSA because, every year, I have $1500 or more in FSA-eligible expenses (gym membership, plus a pair of glasses, birth control, etc). By paying for $1500 through my FSA, I end the year with about $750 more in my pocket.
Unless you’ve looked at FSA-eligible expenses, and have zero (i.e. you’re a celibate with a home gym and perfect eyesight), then you AREN’T making a smart decision, just making a snap decision out of ignorance.
You’re all aware that you can deduct medical expensive from taxes at the end of the year, right?
Yes, but you can ONLY do that if you have more in itemized deductions than the standard deduction would give you. So if you have medical expenses up to or less than $3,000 and you’re single and have no other deductions to itemize (as is my case), you’d be paying tax on this money. With an FSA, you don’t. I save hundreds of dollars with my FSA, and it doesn’t ‘cost’ me anything.
The most simple way to explain this is to say that you save whatever your tax bracket is on this money. So if you’re going to spend $400 on glasses this year, don’t be silly and charge it to a credit card, put it in an FSA and save 30% on it. It’s a total oversimplification, but people argue and argue about what it’s for. The Healthcare Reform thing really effected ingestibles. If you can take it without a prescription it’s not automagically covered. You’ll need to get an RX for it.
I administer FSAs as my job and these tax-advantaged benefits are some of the most misunderstood and widely unused.
Related: Your money is available up front. If you pledge $1000 and you use all of it in January you do NOT have to pay that back if you leave your job in March. This is the other part of use it or lose it. There is dual risk for you and your employer.
u mad bro? u ignert.
No, it’s not. I put enough money in my FSA each year to cover my deductible (I know I’ll hit it because I have to get regular blood tests, and one set of tests is 2/3 of my deductible). I then set aside money to cover my prescription co-pays, and I estimate how many times I’ll probably see my therapist and the doc who prescribes my meds over the coming year, and I put that money into the FSA as well.
Even though I have health insurance, I still would have to pay all these expenses, so this way, not only do I not have to pay taxes on the money, I also don’t have to figure a lot of my monthly medical medical expenses into my budget either. I actually ran short for 2011, since I had a broken tooth that had to be crowned at the beginning of the year, which cost $300 over and above insurance, and paid my last few appointments of the year out of pocket, with just $4 sitting in my FSA out of the $1200 I’d budgeted.
For 2012, if I wind up with extra money as the end of the year approaches, I’ll get some other dental work done that I’ve been putting off (replacing a missing tooth with an implant).
Depends on the plan. Some can be used for stuff other than medical, so long as it’s health-related. My company’s plan allows for expenditures on eyeglasses, contacts, and so on. Dental stuff, too. It isn’t hard at all to rack up $1000 in expenses annually, even without a medical test, procedure, or surgery.
your FSA can prevent bastard children – you can use it for condoms
Okay THAT’s hilarious.
And THAT’s how it should be advertised.
“Pre pay FSA for all of your contraceptive needs.”
You’d have people donating more do that than their damn 401k.
Not anymore. In ’10, FSAs were no longer allowed for coverage of non-prescription medical items, including OTA pharmacuticals, condoms, durable medical supplies, etc. Kinda sucks, because I usually over budget by about $50-75, and stocking up my first aid kit every year with fresh meds and supplies was a bonus.
there may be a difference that’s specific to certain plans. i definitely got reimbursed for medical tape, IV3000 infusion site medical patches and medical adhesive
my plan says:
“About 65% of the items on the OTC list will continue to be eligible in 2011 without a prescription. This includes non-medicine/non-drug OTC items such as bandages, wound coverings, bloog sugar test kits and test strips, insulin, contact lens solution and more.”
and i just double checked on condoms and they’re still on the list for my FSA. if you notice, it’s just a little ways below “Christian Science Practitioners” which are also covered.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/catastrophegirl/6561503203
You don’t need to use the whole amount to come out ahead. If you put $1000 into the account and only use $950, you didn’t “lose” $50. You turned $1000 of gross income into $950 of net income. Had you paid taxes on the money, you’d have ended up with less than the $950.
The ability to predict expenses with a reasonable degree of accuracy is definitely important, though.
It is a bit like gambling, but if you know you’ll have a set amount that you will use, might as well plan ahead for it and get it tax free. I know I have crappy teeth, so I normally set about 200 aside just for that. Then about every 3 years, I’ll set aside an extra 200 for new glasses.
Contact lenses & birth control!
The big problem with FSA’s is that they evaporate at the end of the year.
They are a minor tax dodge and not really a good way to save for anything.
As others have said: a real HSA is much much MUCH better. If you don’t “meet your deductible” then it just keeps building up year after year until you actually need it. You don’t have to “plan ahead” more than just socking some money away.
It’s unwise to put money into an FSA unless you’ve already planned how you are going to spend it beforehand.
FSAs are good for known health care expenses, like $60 for an eye exam, $200 for dental cleaning x-rays, and if you have kids, assuming that they will have $400 or $500 worth of doctor’s visits over the course of the year.
It’s typically a bad idea to dump too much money into it because you can lose it at the end of the year. But if you know you’ll be needing new glasses, a new crown, and a couple of questionable moles cut off, then definitely run the money through it.
This is an excellent way to lower the cost of planned medical procedures that you know are coming. For instance, braces for your kids, large co-payments for planned surgeries (knee, shoulder, hip reconstructions/replacements), etc. Think at least 25% Federal/State tax savings on a $4,000 expense, and you’re saving $1,000 without much effort. And you get to spend the money as soon as the plan year begins, you don’t have to wait until you’ve had all the money deducted from your paychecks.
Even things like contact lenses. Say you spend $200 year on contacts, and you’re saving $50 because of the tax savings.
Total no-brainer.
Or, if your company offers the option, go with an HSA. The money doesn’t evaporate after the year is up, although there is an annual limit to the amount you can deposit pre-tax. These also come with a fairly high deductible plan, but with a much smaller premium. Overall, it has saved me money over standard plans.
My company offers insurance with a high hospitalization deductible an HRA Health Reimbursement Account. The company adds $750 to the account, but I can’t add my own money to it. I hate the use it or use it part of FSAs and wish I could just add my money to the HRA.
You don’t need to go through your employer for an HSA. We just dumped our plan through work and went with a $10,000 deductible HDHP/HSA, which reduced our premiums by $700/month.
and you can usually submit for expenses until march. that is, expenses INCURRED in the current year, before midnight january 1st. so if you need to find a medical receipt from earlier this year, you can send it in for reimbursement after the 1st.
I think the last job I had, the cut off was the first week of January.
Each one seems to be different.
Fiscal year. I worked for a school district & the year was from Sept through August. I could submit until Oct 1. But, as one of my benefits, I got $500. I struggled to use that entire $500 on qualifying medical expenses during the course of the year, even with a family of 4. Most of the time, I lost anywhere between $100 and $400 of that money.
YMMV but our FSA allowed us to access the total amount “pledged” even though it hadn’t all been deposited yet. When my daughter got her braces in January of ’09, we could have either made installments to the orthodontist or pay our full share upfront and get a 10% discount (a few hundred dollars). Even though we had only made one deposit into the account, the administrator allowed us to be fully reimbursed once we showed proof of payment. Double bonus!
You’re allowed to access the entire amount up front with a heath care reimbursement account. That’s not the case with a dependent care (day care) account, though – with the dependent care plan, you can only use the amount that has been talen out of your check.
Good to know. Thanks for the clarification!
We have some pretty decent sized medical bills and they’re fairly consistent (meaning, we can predict them well). I figure I’ve saved like 350-400 every year on it. However, I wasn’t paying attention and missed the enrollment this year, sux.
Keep in mind also that switching to one of these plans is a bit of a gamble early on. Where traditional insurance pays the same year round, if you switch to one of these plans and are hit by a car the next day while your account is still empty, you’re out of pocket. As I understand it, you can use future HSA/FSA spending to retroactively pay yourself back for medical expenses you incur that empty out your account, but you’re still out of pocket until that money comes in. If you plan to make this switch, you’ll want to make sure you have a little cash stashed away in case of emergency. (Which you should do anyway, but it’d be particularly helpful here.)
That is not the case with ours. On January 1st, we can be fully reimbursed for anything (up to the limit of our account) regardless of what we’d deposited. We did it with my daughter’s braces (see my post above) – it was basically an interest-free loan.
Same with ours, we can be reimbursed for the full yearly contribution amount before it’s actually been deposited. Not something you want to rely on in an emergency, but nice to have nonetheless.
Also, I’m not sure how it is with other companies/plans, but where I work only the HSA is tied to a specific plan (that is high deductible and low premium). You are free to elect to contribute to an FSA no matter which plan you choose, including our lowest deductible plan. This next year I’ve planned it out so my FSA should equal my deductible + my best estimate of what I’ll pay for prescriptions. Also really nice, if you contribute at least $100 for the year into your FSA, our company will match with their own $100.
Very nice with the matching FSAs. I’d think it would be almost impossible for you to lose money with that, unless you have $0 in expenses.
It’s not an either/or situation. You can have insurance and a flex spending account. I have an FSA, but I wouldn’t dream of using it as an insurance substitute (have a decent employer-sponsored plan).
The IRS says that you can take money out of an FSA even if you haven’t yet put any money into it:
“You can withdraw funds from the account to pay to receive the maximum amount of reimbursement (the qualified medical expenses even if you have not yet amount you have elected to contribute for the year) at any placed the funds in the account.” (from http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p969.pdf )
I don’t think employers can prevent you from doing this (although I may be wrong).
I think you’re conflating HSA/FSA. HSA’s are almost exclusively used in conjunction with a high deductible policy. A FSA is a way to sequester predicted out-of-pocket costs in a pretax account, saving 20-40%. Many employers allow for immediate full access to the year’s account. Even if yours does not, you are no more out of pocket than if you did not have a FSA. It should also be noted that you’re always initially out of pocket – the FSA is a reimbursement account.
Unless you’re provided with a debit card, like my FSA plan provides. I just use the debit card and then fax in the documentation within 3 months. I never have to pay up front. Love it. My FSA also partners with CVS and a bunch of doctor’s offices where they can determine at the register (or at the office) what is and isn’t qualified. At these places, I don’t even have to provide documentation. It’s all automated. It’s great.
I did conflate HSAs and FSAs somewhat there. At my company, it’s HSA only. I nearly switched last year, but I’m glad I didn’t, cause in January I had a weeklong hospital stay, and two additional trips to the ER over the course of the year. I’d have been so screwed.
I’ve been healthy this year, thank god. Knock on wood.
My employer’s FSA has a grace period that allows me to use 2011 funds to use for claims made between 1/1/12 and 3/15/12, i.e. the money does not evaporate on midnight 1/1/12. The remaining money just rolls over.
You have the grace period confused. What the grace period does is allow you to get your qualified health expenses incurred during 2011 to be paid for in 2012. That rule is in place so if you incur claims in the last few weeks of December, you can still get reimbursed for them with funds you put aside in 2011 but the claim HAS to be incurred in 2011.
If you have set aside funds from 2012, those can only be used for claims incurred in 2012 but that grace period is only for claims from 2011.
Saved about $600 in taxes this year. Spent the $600 already, after the account ran out.
Track your mileage to and from medical related trip. Look into your account to find out what can be charged and the rate.
Leave a few procedures that you do not plan into your FSA so that if something changes and effects what you are going to charge to the account that year, you can charge them instead and deplete your account by years end. I had a expensive medication that I was taking and had planned that into what I was going to use my FSA for, but the medication went generic and now I was going to have a FSA surplus unless I could charge something else.
FSA is not insurance.
If you know how much money you will being paying out of your own pocket that year, you can have part of your pay check go to this account – PRE-TAXED. You gross income is now tax less the amount that went into the FSA account.
For people who have insurance that covers most of the bill, a FSA seems sort of useless. For those that are paying a lot each month, you start seeing its advantages.
Think of it as a way to by-passing filling out the medical line on your itemized deductions on your year-end taxes.
I didn’t start using this until my company provided a benefit card (works like a debit card). Before that you had to pay and submit the bill for a reimbursement.
This can be used for ; deductibles, copay, prescription meds, coinsurance and eye care. Up until 2011 it could be used for most health care products.
You have until March 15th of the following year to use this. If you don’t you will lose the money.
The first year I started out small and it quickly grew from there. Next year it will contribute $3000, I have two kids and I know it will be used.
I believe the rules of the HCRA are set by the government not the company.
I do like it I just wish they wouldn’t have done away with the OTC stuff.
And if you don’t submit the substantiation for the transactions this amount will be added to your taxable income on your W2.
And the other upside of this (at least with my company’s plan) is that if you submit a receipt for reimbursement in January that let’s say uses up your entire year’s fund immediately (for example for an emergency medical procedure or something like a dental crown), they’ll reimburse you the entire amount as if you had already paid the full year’s worth of payroll deductions.
Then if you leave your job in February, that money is yours to keep and you don’t owe them anything more. In a poor economy this could be an unexpected windfall for someone.
Happy Festivus! I got a lot of problems with you people….
Wrong – if you spend more than you have contributed, and stop contributing before you make up the difference, you will have to pay that money back.
unless you are laid off. your employer puts that money at risk as of Jan 1st. if they lay you off, the fully pledged balance is available for your use. I was laid off in 2010 and had elected to have the full $5100 withheld from my pay for my fsa. I only contributed roughly $1400 in my4 months of work…. the rest was free…it was never reported as income either. Yes, we use all of that 5100 yearly… in 2013 thanks to Obama it gets capped at $2500.
Thanks to recent enforced medical legislation, I’ve now had to encumber the medical system by getting a prescription for Rolaids, and encumber the pharmacist by having my Rolaids prescription filled. Thanks, Washington!
So, no, next year, I’m not going to enroll. Over-the-counter medicines was the best use of it.
“The downside is you typically lose unused FSA funds when the year end”
The upside is that if you leave your employer with a deficit in the account, you owe nothing. Say you need something like hearing aids and you know you’re leaving your employer…if you commit to save $4,000 then buy the hearing aids for $4,000 Feb, leave in March — the deficit of the account is forgiven.
I just thought I would mention that FSA is an ABOVE THE LINE deduction is which is huge. It means you don’t have to pay any payroll taxes on that income. In addition, if your on the line for PMI deduction or other AGI dependent deductions, using this plan can save you massively.
I’m using mine in 2012 to get the money to do IVF. My out of pocket should be about 2/3 what it would have been had I not used the FSA. I undershot a little though so I won’t end up with unused funds. My FSA also allows me to access funds not yet deposited. I guess I’ll get a bill if I leave employment with my company before finishing the deposits.
Actually.. you won’t get a bill. That would actually be against the law…
So let’s say you fund your FSA and don’t use all of it. Who gets the leftover money? Your employer? Uncle Sam? Certainly that money doesn’t just evaporate, right?
It’s returned to your employer to do with as they please. Dual risk is that if you use what you pledge in the first quarter and quit in April, they cannot charge you for that money.
What is this probably? I have decent health insurance through my tech startup company, but we don’t offer FSA
My wife worked at a hospital that had a cafeteria style benefits package. She picked the benefits she wanted and the cost came out of her benefits package bucket. Any money left over (up to $500 a month) became Flex Spending money. The money came from the company, not her paycheck. Planning to retire on January 3, 2010, she picked benefits that would allow the max to go into the Flex Account. She retired Jan 3rd and ended up having $6000 in Flex money to spend during the month of January. We ended up spending $5500 on several pairs of eyeglasses on the last Saturday of January all thanks to the Flex Spending Account rules.
You gamble that you will use all that you put in throughout the year. The company gambles that you stay the full year. They do use the forfeited money to pay for people like us who didn’t pay the full year. Hey, I didn’t make the rules. Fortunately we found out before it was too late.
So don’t plan to quit or retire on the last day of December. Sign up for max Flex Benefits in November and leave early in January. If the rules haven’t changed, you can have a lot of money to spend in January.
My wife worked at a hospital that had a cafeteria style benefits package. She picked the benefits she wanted and the cost came out of her benefits package bucket. Any money left over (up to $500 a month) became Flex Spending money. The money came from the company, not her paycheck. Planning to retire on January 3, 2010, she picked benefits that would allow the max to go into the Flex Account. She retired Jan 3rd and ended up having $6000 in Flex money to spend during the month of January. We ended up spending $5500 on several pairs of eyeglasses on the last Saturday of January all thanks to the Flex Spending Account rules.
You gamble that you will use all that you put in throughout the year. The company gambles that you stay the full year. They do use the forfeited money to pay for people like us who didn’t pay the full year. Hey, I didn’t make the rules. Fortunately we found out before it was too late.
So don’t plan to quit or retire on the last day of December. Sign up for max Flex Benefits in November and leave early in January. If the rules haven’t changed, you can have a lot of money to spend in January.
I use this. If I need it throughout the year it comes in handy. At the end of the year, I use anything left for a dental cleaning, checkups, and other semi-optional medical procedures until its all gone.
This year I was healthy enough for veneers to cover my stained front teeth. Next year I’m thinking Lasik.
I can’t manage to get my FSA right. One year, everyone’s healthy and going in to the doctor for covered visits and getting maintenance meds. Another year, my son goes to the ER twice, I go once, and the other kids apparently “need” all kinds of lab work.
So what do you say, Phil? Pile thousands into my FSA and forfeit them later because we’re lucky enough to be healthy all year? Or put nothing in and pay all my copays post-tax? Which is it Phil? Or, just stare all glassy-eyed at a useless post that tells me that I’ve got to stop being so stupid?
Fund it! Sounds like that’s the most effective means of ensuring your family stays healthy. And isn’t that what’s important?
You can use flexible spending accounts for eye glasses, sunglasses and contacts as long as they’re prescription. For contacts you’ll need an actual/current doctor’s prescription because the vendor by law has to call up your doctor to confirm, but for regular glasses/sunglasses you don’t. So here’s a tip – if you find yourself with extra money in your FSA at the end of the year and you know someone that wears glasses, ask them for their prescription details, go online and buy them a pair. You can buy them a snazzy pair of Ray Ban prescription transition sunglasses using money you would have lost anyway. Merry Christmas.
We call that fraud.
We call that fraud.
It’s also fraud in most cases to buy stuff online and not pay state sales tax. But I’m sure the people who frequent Consumerist are sure to keep all of their receipts so that they can pay their use taxes the following April.
Everyone with an FSA plays the ‘use it or lose it’ game at the end of the year, trying to buy whatever item or elective service is eligible even if they don’t really need it, just so that the money doesn’t get lost. This is also technically ‘fraud’ because it’s contrary to the intent of an FSA – it’s meant for necessary medical expenses, not as a tax-free way to stockpile medical supplies.
I’ve tried googling to find the rationale behind having to lose all of the money I’ve put into an FSA if I don’t use it by year end and came up blank. Why, why does my money disappear if I don’t spend it? Where exactly does it go? Why can’t I keep it? Until I find a satisfactory answer my cousin will be happy with an expensive pair of designer prescription sunglasses for Christmas, courtesy of my unspent FSA funds.
HSA is pretty much all I get, so I won’t look that gift horse in the mouth. Still wish it weren’t just as complicated to use as HMO though. The money has already been set aside and the bill is coming straight from my Doctor’s office, and I still have to submit forms in triplicate to get the bill paid. Fraud is probably the reason they’re so tightfisted with my money, but it’s still really annoying.
Its a great deal. Especially if you have prescription drugs copays or contact lenses that are predicatable expenses. Got a crown, braces or lasik eye surgury… those expenses all qualify as well. I am the insurance administrator at my work and I’m always trying to talk people into getting this. This amount is exempt from social security taxes and income taxes.
These plans were a compromise that resulted from congress adding a provision to the tax code that only allowed deductions of medical expenses that were in excess of 10% of adjusted gross income. This happened in the 1990′s. Prior to that, medical expenses were fully deductible for income tax purposes.
Health care is complicated enough without the myriad minefields of health care finance. We need to simply this system. Cut out the middle men and I’ll bet health care becomes at least somewhat affordable again.
As a Type 1 diabetic with an insulin pump, my FSA is a god send. I put $5 k a year in it. Unfortunately, starting in 2013 thanks to the government, the max you can put in it is $1500.
I’m using my FSA to pay for my $3000 LASIK procedure in January. If if weren’t for my flex account, I would either have to charge it and pay at least some interest until paid off or not get it and continue to pay $500 – 600 each year for new contact lenses.