Have you weighed your health care options and come up more confused than ever? We get it; health insurance plans, deductibles, savings accounts, pre-existing conditions . . . It all sounds like jargon after a while, and confusing jargon at that. If you’re looking into health savings account, you’re on track to saving health care costs. Here we’ve listed the primary benefits of an HSA so you can make an unconfused decision.

1.Opposed to an flexible spending account, an HSA doesn’t lock you in to a set contribution amount. That means you can adjust your contribution a monthly basis, depending on your current medical forecast. Additionally, there is no “use-it-or-lose-it” rule with an HSA, meaning your unused funds will roll over into the next year.

2.HSAs are completely tax-free. You may be accustomed to 401k and other accounts that are “tax-deferred,” but if you follow the guidelines on your HSA and use the funds only for qualifying medical expenses, you’ll never actually pay taxes on the contribution.

3.Your employer contributions aren’t taxed either. Ever gotten a raise and then quickly calculated how much you’ll actually see after taxes and deductions? When an employer contributes to your HSA, you get the full amount – no “net” to speak of.

4.Your office visit payments actually go somewhere. With a coordinating high-deductible PPO, you won’t be paying office co-pays that don’t contribute to your yearly deductible or out-of-pocket maximum. That means you get credit for any payments you make.

5.With growing confusion in the health care industry, HSAs are likely to gain popularity. Many otherwise uninsured individuals will likely enroll in qualifying high-deductible PPOs in order to avoid a penalty. This makes them eligible for an HSA – which, if they’ve been listening to us at all, they’ll enroll in immediately!

Got specific questions on spending accounts? Let us know below!