So it’s the day after Thanksgiving and unless you work in retail or for the Postal Service, there is a decent chance you’ve got a little downtime today. It’s a perfect day to get aquainted with your benefits enrollment options for 2009, and specifically figure out what you are going to to about your healthcare. If you have employer sponsored health insurance, there’s a pretty good chance you will have a high deductible health plan (HDHP) option which may be combined with either an an HSA (health savings account) or an HRA (health reimbursement arrangement) or . They may even be your only option(s).
HRAs and HSAs are similar in that they allow money to be set aside to help pay for your healthcare expenses. The main difference between HSAs and HRAs is that with a health savings account, the account is yours so if you ever change jobs, you can take the account with you and all the funds in it are yours regardless of who put the money into the account (you, your employer, a friend or any other third party). With the HRA, the money in that account belongs to your employer, so if you leave your job, you leave the money in that account behind. Both HRAs and HSAs are good tools to help pay for your healthcare.
So as you are sitting on the couch today and this weekend digesting leftovers, it might be a good time to check out the details of your plan, research them some more if you need to, and then go ahead and knock enrollment of your “to do list”. Good Luck.
Filed under: business, health insurance, health savings accounts, healthcare, high deductible health plan, hsa education | Tagged: benefits enrollment, hdhp, high deducitible health plan, hsa education, what is an hsa
