My company is switching health care plans. Each employee has a choice between an HMO and a HDHP. We can also choose to sign up for an FSA (for the HMO) or an HSA (to go with the HDHP). If we choose the HDHP/HSA, the company will deposit perhaps $150/quarter in the account on our behalf. (They pay all employees' premiums completely, so the extra $600/year is to make up for the cost difference between the two different premiums. Final costs are still in work.) Neither my SO nor kiddo #1 are on my plan, it's just me.
The new plans start June 1 and will run until 5/31/17. I am pregnant, due with #2 in late September, so this baby will be born on the new plan. Handily, the brochures for the two plans came with an "example cost" for having a baby. The HMO predicted cost is about $1800 assuming one pays the entirety of the $1000 deductible. The HDHP predicted cost is about $3750, assuming one pays the entirety of the $2750 deductible. I will have paid about $400 of my deductible by then in ultrasound costs. So $3750-400=$3350, the maximum allowed amount for an individual to contribute to an HSA.
Is there any benefit to signing up for an HSA if I think I'll completely wipe it out of funds? I could contribute another $3350 in 2017. But then I don't know if the account will ever have any more money in it since I am not sure I'll stay in the workforce. My plan is to take maternity leave for 12 weeks in Oct-Nov-Dec and come back the first of 2017 and work for at least six months part time. After that point, I will be fully vested in my 401k and all bets are off. I have mixed feelings about this employer and am considering becoming a SAHM. But I think I owe it to my company to not cut and run after they pay me short term disability during my leave. I owe it to myself to collect that remaining free 401k money, and to try out being a working mother of 2. I've been working part-time since a couple of months before my first was born, and they say they will maintain this arrangement with me as long as they can, considering workload. It's incredibly helpful to our family.
Alternatively, if I sign up for the HMO I could do the FSA which is tax-deductible, and wipe it out so I avoid the use-or-lose situation. So at least I reduce my tax burden for 2016, but there's no "retirement account" benefit to doing that.