We've just been royally screwed by my husband's employer and health insurance co.

[NewJeffCT]

21. the main benefit of an HSA account

is that your contributions to it are tax deductible and you can use those contributions to meet your deductible. Some employers also contribute a matching amount to your HSA account as well. You might want to check into that.

They've been around for a while now - I remember during a job interview in 2005 or 2006, the woman interviewing me was bragging about her company's high deductible HSA plan and how great it was. ("Consumer Driven" she said.)

However, I also remember that HMOs became "big" in the 90s because the old indemnity health insurance plans with big deductibles supposedly didn't help hold down medical costs. Now, we're switching back to health insurance with deductibles because HMOs didn't hold down medical costs. What goes around comes around.

Personally, I don't like them, but we did benefit in 2013 from it. My wife rescheduled a minor surgical procedure from Dec 2012 to January of 2013. We paid for the surgery and met the annual deductible with the HSA account. So, we basically had no medical expenses the rest of 2013 because we had met our deductible in early January. (The plan we have has reduced co-pays once you exceed the deductible, and when my wife went back for a follow-up procedure, it was 100% paid for because we went past the deductible.)

Of course, if don't have the money in your account, you're stuck...