Health Insurance hacks

If anyone’s HSA is through Fidelity, I use the Fidelity Health app to save and track my receipts. It’s connected with your account and reimbursing yourself is very simple.

I typically try to reimburse myself a little as possible and keep most of my HSA invested in index and mutual funds
 
Can you invest you HSA in anything? Or are there limited options? Or does it vary depending on how it’s structured. I’ve avoided setting one up for a while now but am thinking I need to rethink that after reading this thread.
 
Can you invest you HSA in anything? Or are there limited options? Or does it vary depending on how it’s structured. I’ve avoided setting one up for a while now but am thinking I need to rethink that after reading this thread.

Generally speaking you can invest it is the same stuff as your 401k/IRA.

You can also self direct and get fancy should you choose.
 
That’s how they win.




P
In the end we are all gonna die. I’m not spending 7 hours on the phone to save $100. It’s pretty frustrating for sure. Some battles are no doubt worth it but I’ve found out multiples times that uncovered items are actually way cheaper than I thought. I’m 39 but get full panel bloodwork every year. Some of it isn’t covered and that kept me from doing it for a while until I found out the total cost was like $80 to get everything done.
 
Can you invest you HSA in anything? Or are there limited options? Or does it vary depending on how it’s structured. I’ve avoided setting one up for a while now but am thinking I need to rethink that after reading this thread.

Its seems that way.

If anyone’s HSA is through Fidelity, I use the Fidelity Health app to save and track my receipts. It’s connected with your account and reimbursing yourself is very simple.

I typically try to reimburse myself a little as possible and keep most of my HSA invested in index and mutual funds

I have 2 HSA accounts. One is through my employer and the other is at Fidelity. I rolled my old HSA into fidelity and they will do a free management of the investments till the account hits $25K. Hasn't lost money yet
 
In the end we are all gonna die. I’m not spending 7 hours on the phone to save $100. It’s pretty frustrating for sure. Some battles are no doubt worth it but I’ve found out multiples times that uncovered items are actually way cheaper than I thought. I’m 39 but get full panel bloodwork every year. Some of it isn’t covered and that kept me from doing it for a while until I found out the total cost was like $80 to get everything done.


Yup.

its kinda like the people that say "i don't have insurance so I don't go to the Dr."... Most Dr.'s will charge $50-75 for a visit if you tell them you're self paying. Sometimes you can even pre-nogiate with a family Dr. that if you pay a certain amount up front you can get 5 visits a year.

My insurance covers chiropractic, but its cheaper if I pay for a visit out of pocket and get reimbursed by my HSA or apply the chiropractic against my High deductible
 
My favorite scam was when bloodwork with insurance was $150ish [after insurance negotiated it down from $500 according to the bill] but because of deductible I had to cough up the entire $150.

Next time, same bloodwork, didn't enter insurance details, full price they charged me was $20.

So having insurance means I paid $130 extra!

This applies a lot of the time, so when you have a HDHP it's worth shopping around and asking for no insurance price first.
 
If you don't think you will hit your deductible on the year, tell the provider you have no insurance and use your hsa card to pay the lower fee. No insurance, cash price is almost always lower than the insurance price. Most insurance plans now are high deductible.
 
Yup.

its kinda like the people that say "i don't have insurance so I don't go to the Dr."... Most Dr.'s will charge $50-75 for a visit if you tell them you're self paying. Sometimes you can even pre-nogiate with a family Dr. that if you pay a certain amount up front you can get 5 visits a year.
...

Sincerely, where are you finding $50-75 physician visits these days?? $100 - 150 cash maybe...

@5MilesBack, I agree. Home owners and auto insurance coverage has gotten wayyy to expensive. I get it to some degree with all the fires and weather related damage but jeez.
 
Don't know how many this will help. But my son is disabled, he is covered by Medicaid because of his condition, he is also on my health insurance policy. We bill everything through our private insurance first and then Medicaid second. So anything that would have been paid out of pocket is covered by Medicaid, but the private insurance just sees that it was paid and it helps us meet the deductible and out of pocket max very quickly at the beginning of the year on our private insurance.
 
Vision insurance - glasses, contacts, annual exams, etc. are usually covered, at least in part, but vision insurance. However, certain eye conditions may be covered by your medical insurance. I had a significant eye injury and since that time have annual check up exams fully covered by medical. They provide me with a prescription and I buy glasses out of pocket from online places.

Dental insurance - if you have decent employer provided dental but are approaching retirement then plan out any major dental work like crowns before you retire. If you have decent dental health after retirement and don't need family coverage you may find annual or semi-annual checkups/cleanings to be less than insurance, especially if you pay cash.
 
The biggest insurance hack is understanding that you don’t need insurance for EVERYTHING.

It’s meant to cover a catastrophe. Not basic medical stuff.

Save the money with the HDHP and the HSA. Pay out of pocket for most of your medical stuff and let your HSA grow.

An HSA is basically a retirement account. And it can help you bridge the gap if you want to retire before you are eligible for Medicare.
 
When I first joined my current company we didnt offer health insurance because we didnt have enough employees. Bought it privately and it was similar cost to what it was through my previous employer. Several years later my current employer started offering it and covering half the cost, even then it was still more expensive that what I could buy privately and slightly worse coverage.

Dont assume that insurance through your employer is the best deal, check your state exchange.
 
My health insurance hack is never go to a DR. But, that's also because I have no health insurance. And I'm a stubborn mule even when I did have it.
 
Self employed health insurance premium deduction.
If you're going to pay $360 for out of pocket dental work, might as well buy $360 worth of dental insurance for the year so that you can claim the premium deduction.
My wife and I have never had medical expenses or other itemized deductions exceed what we get from the standard deduction, so with us both being self employed, the premium deduction is a better way to go.
Also, in Colorado, if we owe money back to the state for the premium tax credit we received, our accountant qualifies that repayment as if it was an original premium payment so we add that to our premium deduction.
 
When I first joined my current company we didnt offer health insurance because we didnt have enough employees. Bought it privately and it was similar cost to what it was through my previous employer. Several years later my current employer started offering it and covering half the cost, even then it was still more expensive that what I could buy privately and slightly worse coverage.

Dont assume that insurance through your employer is the best deal, check your state exchange.
How is this even possible. I worked for a company for 10yrs. My employer covered my health insurance and I had to pay for my kids. He took $968/month out of my check for my kids. I went self employed Jan 1st of this year. I called into the same company to get insurance for me and my kids. It cost me $655/month.

My wife gets her insurance thru employer and they pay 100% of hers. We looked at getting me and the kids put on her plan. They were going to take $2100/month out of her check.
 
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