Simple HSA Plans

I am sorry for all the negative about co pays. I do understand that some people would rather just pay for a higher premium and not have to worry about how much it would be to go to the doctors visit. To me HSA plans are the future. While they may take awhile to become the norm I do realize they can not be pushed on to everyone. Health Savings Accounts are meant to bring health insurance premiums down to reasonable levels so more people can afford insurance. If you can afford the copay plan then great! But to someone who is looking to cut cost and protect themselves against major disasters I recommend HSA plans all the way.

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With all the talk about how HSA plans will save you money and the money you save should be going into a health savings account how many of you are actually doing this? See everything sounds good on paper and when I show the savings but I have noticed still some ask the question if people really save. I say yes. Even if they don’t open the health savings account and just take that $70-$100 dollar a month savings and spend it somewhere else when they need to they will still be doing right. I say this because if something serious were to happen even with a co pay plan you would still need to come up with the money. Instead of paying $30 co pay and the high premium you are paying the discounted rate + the premium which usually ends up being as much as the co pay premium alone. No the co pay only gets you in the door if you need any lab work or radiology then your still going to have to meet your deductible before the insurance will help you out. So you are really still spending the same on the co pay as you would the hsa plan just one took more money to see the doctor and the other didn’t. While I do think many go out and spend the money they save on the premium when they do not need to see the doctor they still will save in the long run. Also most hospital’s and doctor offices will let you go on payments. So don’t have to come up with the big bill and it wont affect your credit.

So if you are thinking you can’t save the money to make a HSA plan work for you then how do you think your going to deal with the same bills on the co pay plan you have now?

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When it comes to shopping around for Health savings account plans it’s also good to look into which banks offer hsa. Sometimes your local bank might not offer them which would leave you to hunt on your own. While I have no major preference on banks I do shop around and see who the best bank is for my savings. While exploring the options I thought I would share with you a bank that seems to work the best. The name is The Bankcorp Bank. It has many benefits for your hsa. For instance they provide a $0 dollar set up fee. This is very nice as most banks are charging a fee to set up your health savings account. Another thing to look for is the monthly fee. Almost all the banks I looked at but again The Bankcorp Bank came through with a good deal. While there is a minimum fee there are some conditions to eliminate them. The first 90 days the account is open you will get a fee waiver and once the account has a balance of $2,500. So if you are really saving the money and putting it into your hsa then this fee should disappear within a year. This fee in particular is $2.50 but at other banks I have seen $4+ a month. While it might not seem like much we are trying to save isn’t we? Another benefit is that you get your first set of checks and 2 debit cards free. While most of us will only use the debit cards there are some times when a check will be needed. Another great feature is the $0 initial deposit. This means you can not only open your health savings account free of charge but you also don’t have to put any money into it.

While I have no ties to this bank I thought I would share my thoughts on it. Please feel free to comment if you have had any bad experiences with this bank.

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Well this is a common belief among insurance on lookers. Many say that it only benefits those that are young and healthy since they do not have to go to the doctor’s office or take prescriptions. Well today that myth has been proved wrong again.

While out on a group call I had included a health savings account plan (HSA) in my quotes along with a co pay. Now both plans would have save the customer money however the HSA plan saved tons. After talking to the business owner and his wife it was apparent that they wanted co pays as they saw the doctors a lot and had a lot in prescriptions. Well with that being said I asked a key question how much do you spend every year just on the copes. The answer was a lot. So I asked if it was over $3,600 dollars. The answer came back as yes. In their current plan they were paying over $1,000 for premium and over $3,600 in copays. So I asked them how would they feel if they paid the $3,600 up front that way the rest of the year everything else was free. They didn’t mind as either way they had to pay. So now came in the major savings. The difference in the premiums was pretty close to that $3,600 over a year’s period. What does this mean? This means that for the cost of their current if they switched it would the health savings account plan plus the deductible in essence saving them from anything that might be over. No longer will they have to worry about spending over $3,000 in just co pays. The best part about it is even if they didn’t have so much in medical bills the savings alone in premium funds the plan for itself.

This just goes to show that HSA’s are not only for the healthy youngsters. There is no way they could lose in this situation and I think will be very happy with this plan.

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If you are still worried about not having a co pay plan and but like the idea of HSA plans then here is a solution. Many times the reason for doubting the copay plan is because of children. While many adults view they do not go to the Dr. Office often they are still concerned cause their children are still young and very well have the possibility to get sick often. Do not let this deter you from a health savings account plan. If you and your spouse rarely see the Dr. and wish to save money then by all means enroll yourselves in a HSA plan. The kids can go on a different plan and they can even be on the same carrier as the parents. Children are cheaper to insure than adults so you would still be saving money and could put your mind to rest if you are worrying about many doctor visits a month. Then once you have saved up enough money you can move everyone over to the hsa plan. Another advantage is that the money you placed into that health savings account could be used towards the kids dr bills as they are your dependents and you are using towards qualified medical expenses. So if you are a parent looking to save money but still worried about dr visits for the kids don’t let health savings accounts be ruled out of the picture.

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So after hearing some information from other agents and seeing how they thought of hsa plans I still dont think the majority of people get it. The major disadvantage copay plans have and you here this as a benefit all the time from agents is that you dont have to worry about your deductible. Hmm so basically what they are saying is you can pay $500 a month in co pays for going to see a doctor and its never going to get you anywhere. Doctor visits don’t mean you are going to have lab work or radiology done they simply mean you went to the doctor for a consultation. You have a problem and you want them to fix it. Now how many times have you been to the doctor and right away they start taking tests? So your at the doctors and you do need lab work or xrays guess what… your going to pay full price for it until you reach your deductible. So not only did that plan cost you more money then a HSA plan, then you had to pay your doctor visit and now your going to pay full price for lab work. So which plan is really cheaper? I would have to say the health savings account plan (hsa) is going to be cheaper. Even if you the difference is only 70 to 80 dollars heck even 50 dollars your still saving money. How? Well Doctor visits are only 70-80 dollars a visit so you pay your premium + 70-80 dollars for a doctor visit = the same amount for the premium on a co pay plan. But now with the co pay plan you have to pay out an addition $35 bucks just to see the doctor… So who is really spending more? Ok now you go to the doctor twice in a month well your going to spend $35-$45 more on a HSA plan but everything is going towards the deductible.

Health savings accounts are wonderful programs that have a lot of benefits. So before you get talked into the same old same old plan speak to me about a HSA to see if its right for you.

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Here is another segment from the 20/20 special I used earlier this week. This one is how an employer looked at the HSA plans and decided to test the waters. The results they got were positive and will continue to fund their employee’s plans with HSA’s. It also shows how rewarding health savings accounts can be. How would you like to check your bank account a couple years from now and see 8,000 in savings just from a medical plan? HSAs will eventually become the main way health insurance but until then we need to focus on spreading the word and uncover the true price for health care.

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One element of the American dream is to own a home. Now when you are shopping around for the home or choosing to get it built you don’t stop until it’s perfect. Once you find that perfect home you don’t buy it you are investing in it. A home is one of key factors in building long term wealth. As you make the payments your pay off goes down and you start to build equity. Then once you have finally paid off that home you are living in one of your biggest assets.

Let’s look to see how a health insurance plan can be viewed the same. We have plans that are high deductibles which means a lower insurance premium cost. These plans have another part called health savings accounts (HSA) which you can put money into tax free and withdraw towards qualified expenses tax free. Take your co pay plan and find out what your premium is. Now with these hsa compatible plans the premiums are normally 30% less than what you would pay for a plan of the same benefit. I am not asking you to pay the premium that’s 30% less I’m asking that you pay what your last plan was and here is why. For ease of calculations pretend your co pay plan was $1000.00 a month. Your new health savings account plan is $700 with a $3,000 dollar deductible. So you pay your mortgage (premium) and invest that savings of $300 into your hsa. Guess what over a years’ time you will have saved yourself $3,600 dollars ($2,900 is the most that could go into the account in 2008 if you are single and no children). That more than pays for your deductible in your first year of savings! So just like a home you can refinance or lift your deductible to make your payment cheaper. So let’s go to $5,000 and say that you are now pay $600.00. Now if you’re really good with savings again you can take all the money you saved from your co pay which is now $400.00 a month and put that into your health savings account (HSA). From that year alone you are going to save $4,800 dollars! Now combine this savings with last year’s savings and you’re looking at $8,400 just for deciding to invest in your health insurance. From here you have 2 options you can lift the deductible again or if you already met the max you can simply leave that money in the account and take your savings to buy something else.

So now you are only paying monthly maintaince fees and have the built up equity. You really shouldn’t stop putting money into the account as the more money you have in there the more money you have when you retire and could use that money for non qualified expenses. Why just pay that high monthly payment and never see a return. Switch to a HSA plan and see the savings. Calculate how much you could save by getting a quote today.

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There might be some doubts about what I had posted earlier regarding health care around the world. Well here is a documentary that 20/20 did. There are six parts to this series but it has been broken down into segments. The segment that you will see addresses the issues that come with a free health care system. While many say they are happy that they don’t have to pay money for seeking help they don’t realize until it is too late. So again while our health care system is in a crisis by switching over to a HSA plan you would be helping to solve the problem. High deductible plans will bring down price and make visits more reasonable.

We should not be depending on insurance to pay for our doctor visit because we have the sniffles. Insurance needs to be brought back to its origins of protecting us from financial hardships due to loss. Seeing the doctor is not going to put you into a financial hardship so why are we splitting the bill with the insurance companies only to have to pay out more the next year? The insurance companies realize this as well and want HSA plans to become the future. Whether we like it or not they will slowly get rid of the co pay plans we have now and replace them we high deductible plans. The advantage someone has of getting a health savings account plan now and getting one when they are all that’s left is you will be PREPARED. The ones that fight the change will not be prepared to face the high deductibles and more than likely will not have saved up for the change. Where someone that has had the plan for awhile will more than likely have money in their health savings account (HSA) enabling them to save even more by lifting the deductible.

Here is the short clip.

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As many of you are aware the government wants to find a way to fix the health care system in our country today. One thought that seems to be gaining popularity is a nationalized system. This would enable all Americans to have a health insurance at no cost. While this system does sound very good and promising let’s look at how other countries are handling their nationalized health care systems.

Canada has this system already in action. At first it was great but they are now seeing the negative effects of what a nationalized system brings. In Canada they have outlawed all private practices and insurance. Many Canadians are now coming to America for insurance and getting procedures done in America because of the faulty system they have back at home.

Let’s take a look at why they are coming to America and view our system as better. Canadians cannot get the treatment they need when they need it. They typically have to wait six months just to get a CAT scan which is needed in order to get the right treatment. On top of that when they go to see the specialist it’s another eight weeks then another nine weeks to get the treatment. In fact because of these long waiting times Canadians are dying while waiting to be treated. So while many think it is a good idea, once they are in need of service for a serious condition they realize how flawed the system.

Now how bout we take a look across the pond at the British National Health Service. They are so overwhelmed with patients that they have to cancel over 400,000 surgeries yearly because of supply shortages. Is this a chance you want to take with you life? Which is more important to you? Free health care that is just going to come out of your pocket in taxes or is paying that extra for what we have now sounds like a better deal?

The problem with the nationalized systems is that there is an over abundance of people wanting to be seen. Since to them the health care is free why not go to the doctor more often? This over consumption of medical care not only delays those in true need of the service but also causes a major financial crisis. Of course this means that we would have to pay for down the road in taxes.

The alternative is to transition over to health savings account plans (HSA). These plans will enforce price competitiveness and value in services. High deductible plans force consumers to look at the cost of health care and shop around. If a doctor will provide a visit for $50 dollars and the other is wanting $70 dollars that higher priced doctor better have a good reason why they are able to charge more. I believe this will not only lower health care cost but also improve our health care system by forcing companies to treat clients better. Health costs need to be exposed and Americans given the option to choose who they want to see.

HSA’s could also fund other health care related procedures. If you need glasses or braces you can use that health savings account to pay for it. Or if you retire and want to fund your long term care you can use that HSA to pay the premiums. Or let’s just say you retire and need money it is there for you. No one can take your money away from you. You get to control what goes in and out of that account.

While high deductible plans are the wave of the future it will take time to see the effect. There are over 3 million policies today and by 2010 the US Treasury estimates over 14 million. Now this is only a fraction of people currently insured today. Health savings accounts need to be brought to the surface more if we want to make a change quicker. Talk to your friends and family about what a HSA could do for them and how they will be making a difference. Please help me spread the word!

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