From the Mailbag: Interesting HSA scenario

Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) are generally pretty transparent; after all, there aren't a lot of moving parts: a compliant health insurance policy, a properly administered savings account (typically help at a bank and using a debit card for access). Pretty simple, no?

Sometimes, though, things aren't as easy as they may at first appear. From the mailbag:

"Thank you for reaching out to me. My husband will be 65 in a few months. I have a HSA account. He and our daughter are on my account.  My question: is he able to enroll in Medicare and also use the HSA account?  He does not contribute to the  account."

Pretty straightforward, although I did have a few questions to ensure that we were on the same page. Once those were cleared up, it was a simple matter to reach out to our own Gurus of all things HSA, the fine folks at FlexBank, who assured us that:

"The wife can use the HSA funds  for her husband's qualified medical dental vision and hearing expenses. She cannot use it for his Medicare premiums unless she is also age 65."

Interesting, no?

What's sad is that there aren't any Medicare HSA options. One would think they'd be ideal for healthy seniors.

Oh, well, opportunity lost.

[Hat Tip: FoIB Jeff M]

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