Don't Quit Your Day Job: The Intersection of Personal Finance, Economics, and Politics.
Edit: Commenter Free By 50 has pointed out that guidance has been issued on employer paid contributions to an HSA or an HRA. You can find that calculator on the Center for Consumer Information & Insurance Oversight website. I was only able to open it in a recent version of Microsoft Office – YMMV. I [...]
Jason’s cheap, but that doesn’t mean he compromises when it comes to his meals… read this epic guest post about avoiding food that tastes like rat, comment, and check him out at his site, Live Real, Now.
From the always-interesting website Political Calculations comes this gem of an article… The Calvalcade of Risk 102. Let me explain… Ironman hosted the carnival, but also embedded into it a useful calculator for determining whether or not an individual should drop health insurance as a result of the new health care law. The somewhat predictable result? If you’re younger and generally healthy, you could be better off dropping health insurance. Check it out yourself!
The Congressional Budget Office recently released their scoring of the Senate Health Care Bill. Reading some of the headlines in major newspapers, one would be forgiven to think that the health care plan being debated in the Senate is a deficit reducing panacea for all of the United States’ health problems… “No Big Cost Rise in U.S. Premiums Is Seen In Study” touts the New York Times, for example. The health care bill is supposed to ‘bend the health care cost curve’ and extend coverage to the unfortunate people who don’t currently have insurance. Sadly, it completely misses the mark.
What’s wrong with taxing individuals making over $200,000 and couples making over $250,000? Nothing, if you are honest about what is really going on. The health care plan in the senate would mean new taxes for ‘rich’ folks in these tax brackets. Worse still? It doesn’t account for inflation in this calculation. What follows is a calculated tax which, like the Alternative Minimum Tax, will slowly creep into the middle class as inflation starts to show up again.
The Health Savings Account, or HSA was introduced in 2003 and has revealed itself to be a solid choice in saving money on health insurance. Beyond the obvious saving advantage that comes from empowering consumers to pay for most of their everyday medical expenses, the HSA also has a hefty tax benefit. HSAs are free from federal tax when accumulating, compounding and distributing money (although some states, like California do tax it). Of course, the tax benefit is only when using the HSA for qualified medical expenses. After the beneficiary turns 65, non-qualified distributions are taxed at the normal tax rate, just like a traditional 401(k) or IRA.
