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By choosing an HSA, one
is betting on themselves, in a way. If you stay healthy, then with a typical
health insurance plan you’re just out a lot of money. With an HSA,
not only did you pay significantly less in premiums, but at the end of the year
you have a nice deposit of up to $5,250 sitting in your account. Money on
which you didn’t pay federal income taxes, state income taxes (with the exception
of about six states), or social security taxes. Let’s
say a 30-year old man with a family opens an HSA and has a high-deductible health
plan that allows him to fund the account with $5,250 each year. If he takes
$1,000 or less out each year for medical expenses, and earns a 10% return on his
money, he’ll have $1,422,878 when he retires. (You can do your
own calculations with our HSA
Future Value Calculator). The
best way to accumulate this much money in your HSA is to stay healthy, so that
you don’t need to access those funds to pay for medical expenses. The
good news is that the vast majority of diseases and disorders people have are
the direct result of their lifestyle choices. High blood pressure, cancer,
diabetes, Alzheimers, digestive disorders, endometriosis, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis,
and more, are all largely preventable. The
average guy doesn’t get it. The
average American lives as if social security, a few prescriptions, and some good
luck will take care of him in his later years. So he saves little for retirement.
He eats packaged foods like French fries, chips, cokes, pasta, and cold cuts.
And over the years he puts on “a few extra pounds”, and he gets out-of-shape,
and he gets high blood pressure, and high cholesterol, and eventually heart disease,
cancer, diabetes, or Alzheimers. Insurance
companies get it. Some
insurance companies do understand the tremendous impact lifestyle can have on
health, and are beginning to institute programs to encourage healthy lifestyles
among their customers. Healthy policyholders will use their coverage less,
resulting in lower rates for them, and better customer retention and higher profitability
for the insurance company. Pacificare and its subsidiary American Medical
Security have just instituted a new program called HealthCredits, designed to
help reward its customers for staying healthy. The online program provides
a health risk assessment, a personalized health-improvement plan, email access
to trainers, counselors, and nutritionists, and even credits that can be redeemed
for health-related merchandise. HSA
owners get it.People
who open Health Savings Accounts are proactive. They act ahead of time,
and think about how their actions now will affect their future. That is
why they put away tax-deferred money for future possible health expenses, and
that is why I think many are also interested in taking a proactive approach to
their health. So in addition to talking about Health
Savings Accounts in this newsletter, in the future I will also be giving information
and tips about how to be optimally healthy. Choosing to live an extraordinarily
healthy life, and actively making lifestyle changes, is an activity that will
bring tremendous returns. Tax-free, just like an HSA. To
your health and wealth,
Wiley
Long
President
HSA
for America
PS – If you need assistance in choosing a high-deductible
health insurance plan, please contact us at 866-749- 2039,
or visit our website www.HSAforAmerica.com.
Please
visit my new Health
Savings Account Blog for daily news, information,
and commentary on all aspects of Health Savings Accounts.
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