health savings account was Re: health insurance

[Laura Olsen]

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Willem,
Not quite, Wim. They don't lend you anything.  An MSA is in two parts.  One
is the Insurance Policy and the rest is the amount that goes into your
savings account.  Past the high deductable, the insurance policy pays a
percentage of covered medical expenses like other policies.   I've been
insured by Golden Rule's MSA since May of 1999 and it is handy to have
access to those savings to pay medical bills as they come up (provided you
have enough in the savings account.)  It is my experience though, that there
is very little that I use that their policy will cover, although if it's a
deductable medical expense, covered or not you can use the savings in your
MSA to pay for  it.  It's also been hard to find physicians in my area that
are included on their Preferred Provide list and their discounted Lab
service is useless to my Doctors and I've never had a perscription that
their discount card was able to help me with. My primary physician won't
mess with filing their forms which creates more of a hassel. This could very
well be the case for any insurance I get, even when I was paying almost $900
a month for me and my son my claims were frequently denied. Now I pay half
that and almost $300 a month goes into the Savings account, less a $3 a
month fee.  Also, (a plus) anything in your Medical Savings Account at
retirement gets rolled over into an IRA.  Your insurance policy is a
deductable expense and the amount you pay into the savings account is
deductable.  The interest is tax deferred.  I haven't found a policy that's
perfect yet. Not even close, but I can't afford to be uninsured.  A 5 hour
trip to the emergency room recently cost me about $2300.  I guess I'd just
advise you read the fine print and watch out for those riders.

Laura Olsen, RPT
Team2001 Institute Director
44th Annual PTG Convention & Institute
July 11-15, 2001
Reno, Nevada
http://www.ptg.org/conv.htm




[Laura Olsen]  -----Original Message-----
From: owner-pianotech@ptg.org [mailto:owner-pianotech@ptg.org]On Behalf Of
Wimblees@AOL.COM
Sent: Thursday, May 24, 2001 9:42 AM
To: pianotech@ptg.org
Subject: health savings account was Re: health insurance


  In a message dated 5/24/01 1:44:06 AM Central Daylight Time,
  rbrekne@broadpark.no writes:



    I have found (through many past mistakes) that a "Medical Savings
    > Account" is the best way to go. I have mine through a company called
    Golden
    > Rule. They offer significantly lower premiums than any other company
that
    I
    > have seen. The payment is roughly what i was paying before but the
    > difference between the actual premium and the payment is what goes in
the
    > interest bearing savings account. This money can be used for any
medically
    > deductible expenses you find throughout the year including but not
limited
    > to satisfying the deductible. Please do yourself the favor of at least
    > checking into it. It really is the best thing going IMHO!
    >
    > Greg
    >



  The way I read this, the premium you pay goes into a savings account, and
  when you need to, you can use the saved up amount to pay the bill.  What
  happens when you have a bigger claim than what you have in your savings
  account? I presume Golden Rule will "lend" you the money to pay the rest
of
  the bill. If so, what interest do you have to pay then? And if you decide
to
  quit the company, will you have to continue to pay off your "loan," in
  addition to paying for your new insurance plan?

  Willem

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