<div dir="ltr"><br><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><div dir="ltr">Sure, I could use the money I put into the HSA, but that also defeated the purpose of having it IMO. Because the money you deposited into the HSA was deductible as was the money you spent on medical expenses (so long as they met IRS requirements).</div>
</blockquote><div><br>I'm not an accountant, but a little clarification might be useful. Money put into an HSA is not deductible from your taxes, it is completely tax free. It is not counted as earned income for tax purposes. Money spent on healthcare after it has been taxed as income is deductible, but only on a percentage bases.<br>
<br>So even if you spend your entire HSA on your deductible, you still end up ahead tax-wise because you paid no income tax on the money in your HSA. If you used non-HSA taxed income to pay your medical bills, you can deduct that expense from your taxes, but only as an itemized deduction which reduces, but does not eliminate the tax on that income.<br>
<br>That being said, I still hate HSA's because they are a pain to administer.<br><br>You know, if we cut out all the administrative costs of this spaghetti system we call healthcare in the U.S., we could easily provide health insurance for every living, breathing body in the U.S. for the same price we currently spend to cover a fraction of our population. Something to think about with the election season upon us.<br>
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