Hi,
I live in California where I work for myself from home in my sole proprietorship consulting business. Due to rising ACA health insurance premium costs, for 2018 I selected a Bronze plan with high out of pocket costs.
I'd like to make a better choice for 2019. I have multiple pre-existing conditions (nothing extremely serious, but most of the articles I've read presume total health), so I'm weighing going with:
1. a Bronze plan and opening an HSA and actually using it vs.
2. a higher premium silver plan with no HSA and lower out of pocket costs.
The total costs are all around $12-14k/year+++ (the ACA site has them almost equal in total costs) so beyond my mortgage this is my biggest expense and I want to get it right.
Questions:
I read this article:
https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2017/11/05/when-your-shitty-health-insurance-doubles-in-price/ and want to understand when MMM says, "But also remember that if you’re a high-income business owner, your business can pay for your health insurance with pre-tax money. This cuts your net cost after taxes by 30-40%, making it a subsidized program after all"
he's just referring to the fact that health care premiums are tax deductible... or am I missing something?Which plan would you choose (right now the marketplace calculators are assuming they'd be about even)? The scary part about the HD plan is it's 40% coinsurance for just about everything.
My understanding of the HSA is that it's limited to $3,400, so since I would need that to cover my out of pocket costs - prescriptions, doctor's visits, etc. does it still have value if I use it all up during 2019?
Thanks for your help!
