Personal Finance

3738 readers

2 users here now

Learn about budgeting, saving, getting out of debt, credit, investing, and retirement planning. Join our community, read the PF Wiki, and get on top of your finances!

Note: This community is not region centric, so if you are posting anything specific to a certain region, kindly specify that in the title (something like [USA], [EU], [AUS] etc.)

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

Matt Breunig on HSA ＆ FSA: The Welfare System Stole $2k From Me (www.youtube.com)

submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

27 comments fedilink hide all child comments

These US healthcare systems are effectively scams. Yes in theory they can save you money, however in theory there is no difference between theory and practice, while in practice there is.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Maybe so! The one at mine worked like this:

You elect in advance how much you want to fund your FSA in the next upcoming period (year)
On day 1 of that period the FSA is available to you to spend on eligible expenses. Within 2 weeks I spent the full years elected amount (one surgery).
For the duration of the period they deduct (pre-tax) the total FSA election / pay periods (ie. $2000/24 in my case). And that would repeat through the full period (year).

So in my case, leaving after paycheck 1 of that period, but spending 100% of the elected funds means I paid: 1x(2000/24)= $83. But I spent $2000. Upon leaving that meant they did not collect $1917.