I’m sure there were backroom conversations about the possibilities. I expect that some kind of transitioning was being done during this so-called transition.
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It sounds tasty; but, no bones, no marrow. That takes half the fun outta the meal.
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“Sing a song. Don’t be long. Thrill me to the marrow”
So obviously Steven Stills is in on “it” with Tom Hanks!
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When you have the key, there’re just so many mysteries that you can unlock!
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This is good. My coworker is uninsured right now. I let him know about the upcoming open enrollment and he is thrilled
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Interesting and informative stats with only little more than three weeks in For President Biden.
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I posted this elsewhere in 2019:
I am curious about the way you described HSA accounts in this last week as being available to anyone with a high deductible policy. I, too, thought that was true. My wife and I buy ACA compliant, high-deductible policies (we each have individual plans with a $6000 deductible).
But we learned that those policies are NOT “HSA Qualified.” Being qualified for an HSA, we were told, involves MORE than just having a high deductible (over $1300). It also involves having an out of pocket maximum of NO MORE than $5000 per individual or $10,000 per family. It makes no sense, but that’s the rule.
My wife and I each have ACA-compliant BCBS of IL Blue Precision Bronze plan. Even though our deductibles are high enough to use an HSA, our max out of pocket expanses are $7,350 each, so that puts us over the $5,000 limit to contribute to an HSA. It’s a flaw in the system. We are EXACTLY the people HSAs were intended to help, but we can’t contribute to one with these ACA-compliant plans.
Here is a link to the rules for qualifying plans:
https://www.bcbsil.com/country/hsa_qualifies.htm
Here is a link to the specs of our plans.
https://www.bcbsil.com/policy-forms/201 … 083-03.pdf
This topic came up on the Bogleheads board, too. Here is a link to that discussion:
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=239820
Here is the relevant bit from the last link:
To be HSA-eligible, plans must meet certain specific criteria that the deductible must be above a certain amount and the out-of-pocket maximum must be under a certain amount.
The first year they had them, this OOP maximum was the same as the law under the ACA that all health plans must meet. But the 2 numbers were indexed to different inflation metrics: the HSA max to CPI inflation, and the ACA max to medical inflation (which is higher). The result is that plans that use the higher ACA OOP maximum figure are no longer eligible for an HSA, the plan has to be specifically tailored to have the lower OOP max.
It’s just one of those things that was a mistake/fell through the cracks but it appears nobody in congress can agree on even a simple fix to align the 2 numbers so more of us could use HSAs. Ah well.
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Not necessarily. Welcome to the world of the Congressional Budget Office, who scores all the legislation. Linking the HSA limits to CPI would lead to a lower cost to the government over time. Since everything gets balanced and costed against everything else to get legislation through (and don’t get me started on Senate PayGo rules), these things most often aren’t accidental, they’re a bit of budgeting fairy dust to constrain the costs over time.
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It is an age-old axiom -
Budgets and Forecast will never perfectly match actual - the only questions are:
- how large is the variance?
- is the variance due to flaws in the estimation
… or aberrations /unanticipatable factors in the actual experience - was anything learned?
Absolutely understand that - “3 hours vs well over 3 months” conundrum - Also I will wager that you also have seen the scenario where a 3 month budgeting process is arduously worked up from sale by product code & expense by month by every detail … and then in the last 3 hours - the CEO & the CFO red pencil in a dozen substantive changes - too big and too little time to do a top to bottom re-work - so it it just gets plugged in in different ways - effectively 3 months of detail instantly transformed into a wild-ass-guess!
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Huh. I was going by this:
For 2020 , the IRS defines a high deductible health plan as any plan with a deductible of at least $1,400 for an individual or $2,800 for a family. An HDHP’s total yearly out-of-pocket expenses (including deductibles, copayments, and coinsurance) can’t be more than $6,900 for an individual or $13,800 for a family. (This limit doesn’t apply to out-of-network services.)
You don’t fillet?
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Yes my post was from 2019. The numbers are different. My point is that they change at rates so different soon the permissible deductible will be higher than the max OOP.
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Yeah. I get that. Sorry my post was incomplete. My OOP Max was at $6900 last year and $7000 this year, which is the max for 2021.
I assumed insurance companies would be smart enough to peg OOP to this max as anything else is malpractice. I guess they don’t all operate on best practices?
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Absolutely. This is not Biden’s first crack at this. I’m sure his seasoned team were in contact with the Insurance types at least once the EC was confirmed, if not when the networks called the election.
They have been working HARD.
What a concept.
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What’s weird is that even usually-careful finance writers say “if you have a high-deductible plan, use an HSA” which is not necessarily true. (I’ve written to Michael Kitces and Christine Benz this correction, and they are both great.)
Even Turbo tax just asks if you have “a high deductible plan,” not an “HSA Qualified plan.”
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Remember when all we had to worry about was the ACA enrollment numbers and all the ways Trump was trying to sabotage it? Good times.
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I agree and I didn’t give it much thought since “high-deductible plan” is all they usually say.
So you gave me enough pause and I had to go look up our policies for the last couple of years. I know I was careful to filter by “HSA Qualified plans” this year, but you made me look back. 
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Actually, I’m pretty sure the IRS doesn’t even know this issue exists. Seems like no one does.
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I have A Modest Proposal for you…
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So you’re saying that KellyAnne Conway changed her name?
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