Does anyone really give a spit about health savings accounts? Should they? Or is it a trick when we could just lower the income tax and say, "Now you have more money for health care if you need it. If you don't, go buy some new kicks."
It's not our job to make people save for health care.
Actually, after having investigated actual health CARE costs, versus the price of insurance, we opted for a high deductible health insurance plan and put the maximum away in the HSA. All small bills were paid out of the HSA, with untaxed dollars. For someone self-employed, this was a godsend, because both insurance costs and the money paid to fill the gap was untaxed, and the HSA contribution took 3% off the overall tax rate one year to boot.
If we had paid out of pocket instead of routing the money through the HSA, we not only would have had to pay taxes on the money we bought health care with, but would have had to pay higher tax rates as well (at least in one year).
Now, thanks to the ACA, our doctor retired, the insurance carrier quit underwriting health care policies, and we pay out of pocket because we just can't afford (with a slowdown in my job sector) insurance (over 28K a year).
IMHO, all the money spent on medical costs should be tax free, from insurance payments to doctor visits, whatever.
