Updated on January 4, 2008.

HIGH HEALTH-CARE DEDUCTIBLES can be a financial burden, even for folks with health insurance. Those costs can now be covered with pretax dollars through a tax break called a Health Savings Account (HSA). That's good for self-employed folks, small business owners, employees of small to medium-sized outfits (with bare-bones health benefits) and those under age 65 who pay for health care on their own.

How HSAs Work

Eligible individuals can slash their federal income tax bills by making deductible HSA contributions. This is like making deductible IRA contributions. And HSAs are almost as easy to set up as IRAs (more on that later). Even better, you can qualify for the HSA break regardless of your income since there are no nasty phase-out rules for high earners like the ones that apply to deductible IRA

contributions

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Now for the ground rules. You're allowed to make HSA contributions only if you are covered by health insurance with a 2008 deductible of at least $1,100 for self-only coverage or $2,200 for family coverage (family coverage means anything that isn't self-only coverage). People working for large companies with generous benefits won't be eligible. But potentially anyone else under age 65 is.

Assuming you meet the insurance deductible requirement, the maximum HSA contribution for 2008 is $2,900 for single coverage or $5,800 for family coverage.

You claim the writeoff for HSA contributions on Page 1 of your Form 1040 (a so-called above-the-line deduction). This means you'll get the federal tax-saving benefit whether you itemize or not. (In some states, you may get a state-tax write-off as well.)

Example 1: Say you're self-employed as a sole proprietor, partner, or LLC member. Because of your self-employed status, your only affordable health insurance option is a family policy with a hefty $2,500 deductible. With an HSA, you can make a deductible contribution of up to $2,900 for 2008. If you're in the 33% federal tax bracket, your tax bill goes down by $957 (you'll have that much more cash in your pocket after filing your 2008 taxes). Not bad! You can then continue to contribute to your HSA on an annual basis, collecting similar tax savings year after year as long as your circumstances remain the same.

If you happen to be an employee with the same less-than-generous health insurance coverage, your tax results would be the same (assuming your spouse doesn't have family coverage with a lower deductible).

Example 2: Say you work for a small company that doesn't provide any employee health coverage. You had to arrange for your own health insurance, which in your case means separate self-only policies for you and your spouse with separate $2,000 deductibles. For 2008, you can contribute up to $2,900 to an HSA set up in your name. Your spouse can also contribute up to $2,900 to a separate HSA set up in his or her name. So the two of you can together contribute and deduct a total of up to $5,800 ($2,900 each). If you're in the 33% federal tax bracket, this would reduce your tax bill by $1,914 with very little effort on your part. You'll collect similar tax savings year after year as long as your circumstances remain the same.

Additional Withdrawals

It gets better. As the account beneficiary of your HSA, you can also take federal-income-tax-free withdrawals from the account to pay uninsured medical expenses for yourself, your spouse, and your dependents. (However, you cannot take tax-free withdrawals to pay the premiums for your high-deductible health coverage.)

You get a bonus if you're healthy and incur minimal medical expenses. Your HSA balance is allowed to accumulate from one year to the next, and any income earned on your balance is federal-income-tax-free. So if your health is really good, you can use your HSA to build up a substantial tax-favored medical expense disaster fund over the years.

Once you reach Medicare eligibility age (65 under current law), you can start taking HSA withdrawals for any reason you choose. If you use the money for something other than health care costs, however, you'll owe federal income tax (and maybe state income tax too). But you won't get hit with the 10% premature withdrawal penalty tax that generally applies to pre-age-65 payouts that are not used for medical expenses. (There's no 10% penalty tax on withdrawals after death or disability either.) This makes the tax rules for withdrawals similar to a deductible IRA.

Alternatively, your HSA balance can be used to cover your post-age-65 healthcare costs including Medicare Part A and B premiums, Medicare HMO premiums, garden-variety health premiums, insurance deductibles and co-payments, prescriptions, long-term care insurance premiums, and so forth. When used to cover health care costs, your withdrawals will be federally tax-free.

If your HSA still has a balance when you depart this cruel orb, your surviving spouse can take over your account federal-income-tax-free and treat it as his or her own HSA. Just make sure to name your spouse as the account beneficiary in the event of your demise.

If You're 55 to 65 Years Old, You Can Make Bigger Contributions

If you're 55 or older at the end of the year in question, you can make larger deductible HSA contributions than younger folks. The annual contribution maximum that would otherwise apply to you under the rules explained earlier is increased by $900 for 2008 and by $1,000 for 2009 and beyond.

Once you turn 65, you can no longer contribute. However, if your HSA still has a balance at that time, you can continue taking tax-free withdrawals for medical expenses or start taking taxable withdrawals for any reason you choose.

More Eligibility Rules

If you have self-only health coverage for 2008, it cannot require more than $5,600 in annual out-of-pocket payments for covered benefits (including the amount of your policy deductible). For family coverage, the 2007 annual out-of-pocket maximum cannot exceed $11,200 (including your deductible).

You're ineligible to make HSA contributions for any year when you are covered for the entire year by a non-high-deductible health plan that provides coverage for any benefits covered under the high-deductible plan (in other words, overlapping coverage with a low deductible is forbidden). In applying this restriction, however, the following types of health-related coverage don't count:

Insurance for a specific disease or illness (like cancer insurance).

Insurance that pays a fixed amount per day or other period of hospitalization (so-called hospital benefit insurance).

Coverage for accidents, disability, dental care, vision care, or long-term care.

Workers compensation insurance.

Setting Up an HSA

Legally speaking, an HSA is an IRA-like trust arrangement that can be established at a bank, insurance company, or any other outfit (such as a brokerage firm) approved by the IRS. You can do an Internet search to find available trustees and the fees they charge, and the investment options they offer.

Originally published on December 17, 2003.