HSA

I just read the e-mail from Pennyhoarder and I am wondering why oh why can that why can’t we just open an HSA ourselves? Why do they make it that you have to go through an employer? Why doesn’t the government make it easier for us to pay for our healthcare. Healthcare is so expensive between paying for your insurance ,your co-pays . Plus you can’t be on Medicare? What’s the deal here? you would think that we could just open an account through your bank or credit union and that would be it. This is more of a venting for me. It just makes no sense to me.

My bank offers an HSA. It’s a smaller local bank in NH.

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I just did a little research into this and I believe it is possible to open an HSA separate from an employer.

Fidelity Investments offers one that you can deposit in directly from your bank account and it still offers you certain tax benefits.

I’m not an expert on this topic, but it looks to be a possibility.

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I Thanks for replying, I was wondering if someone who doesn’t work could open one. I am going to check with my Credit Union . I was also wondering if the employer has to offer it. You would think that more people would know about this.

The triple-tax benefit of having an HSA is that contributions are tax-deductable health savings account (HSA) is a tax-advantaged medical savings account available to taxpayers in the United States who are enrolled in a high-deductible health plan (HDHP). The funds contributed to an account are not subject to federal income tax at the time of deposit.ctible, the HSA account balance grows tax-free (at least at the federal level) and funds can be withdrawn without being taxed when used for HSA qualified expenses. … HSA earnings may accrue from investing HSA funds.

Unless things have changed over the last 5 years, both my life partner and I opened our own HSA accounts and benefited from the tax free accounts. I opened one when HSAs were first on the market so there were very few plans/banks to choose from.

We were both self-employed with no access to company health insurance so had to enroll and pay for our own, and we did sign up for high deductible plans, fortunately, because both of us were in great health.

When I turned 65 and eligible for Medicare, I rolled the funds that had accumulated in my HSA over into my IRA, still tax free.

I just found this article that might help you start you off on your research.

https://www.thebalance.com/how…ings-account-2645636