FSAs (flexible spending accounts) Yay or Nay???

JillBean78 · November 2010

I've never done one before, we have the option of getting one though during open enrollment.

Jeff thinks it is dumb, of course. I think he would be a good idea. I'm not talking putting a ton of money in it, we can do $120-$5000. I was thinking maybe $20-30 each check. It would come in handy (I think) with the fact that we are taking a different insurance now. We can use it to cover co-pays, drugs, other medical expenses, my contacts, etc....

So, if you have one, what is your experience??

~Jen · November 2010

Yay! I have used it from the get go. I think I started around 1500 and even went up to $5000 on year when I knew I was going to have a procedure done. My suggestion is to go into your medical & prescription accounts now and look at what you have spent this year. Was this a pretty normal year? If so, use about that same amount for your FSA acct. If it was higher then normal, go less in your acct and if lower then normal, go more in your FAS acct. Just remember that you lose what you don't use. You can also use it for over the counter product as well. One year I cut it close to I made sure to start submitting those over the counter products towards the end of the year. We only did $2100 this year, as we didn't know how much A's RSV shots would be when we signed up in October, so we have gone through out $2100 already (her RSV shots were $400/mth)

Sunidaze · November 2010

i plan to sign up for mine after the mew year. still debating how much. i've done it before and really wish i did this year after some medical expenses i incurred back in june. in 2012 the max you'll be able to do is $2500 ( that's just an fyi).

~Jen · November 2010

BrandySun:
i plan to sign up for mine after the mew year. still debating how much. i've done it before and really wish i did this year after some medical expenses i incurred back in june. in 2012 the max you'll be able to do is $2500 ( that's just an fyi).

Really? Well, that stinks!

JillBean78 · November 2010

I am going to try to talk Jeff into $1500. Our expenses last year for co-pays and stuff were about $2300, kind of sick when you think about it, but that was for copays, contacts, meds for all of us, etc.... But Davis was a newborn and we went to a lot more well visits, now we only have 1 a year, plus he had his surgery and saw several specialists, I don't think we will have that this year. That amount also includes the payments I was making towards his birth because when I had him we had 80/20 insurance and I owed $$$. So I feel good about $1500 for stuff.

I think it equals out to around $60 a check, so $120 a month or something. You tell them how much you want for the year and they divide it out amongst your paychecks.

Heck, might come in handy for speech therapy!!!

~Jen · November 2010

Jill ~ you do know an FSA account is pre-tax right? So, you won't be taxed on that $1500. I'm pretty sure you already knew that, but just want to make sure ;-) Don't you hate being the one to figure all this out?! We went with DH's insurance and thus FSA account and he just can't keep up with it. He said we had $1500 left in the account, so I pulled everything and looked and there was $1800 that he never submitted... MEN! lol

Sunidaze · November 2010

~Jen:
BrandySun:
i plan to sign up for mine after the mew year. still debating how much. i've done it before and really wish i did this year after some medical expenses i incurred back in june. in 2012 the max you'll be able to do is $2500 ( that's just an fyi).

Really? Well, that stinks!

i think part of the healthcare reform bill...i had to look it up a couple of weeks ago for work.

Sunidaze · November 2010

~Jen:
BrandySun:
i plan to sign up for mine after the mew year. still debating how much. i've done it before and really wish i did this year after some medical expenses i incurred back in june. in 2012 the max you'll be able to do is $2500 ( that's just an fyi).

Really? Well, that stinks!

i think part of the healthcare reform bill...i had to look it up a couple of weeks ago for work.

Lady*Timot · November 2010

I say maybe....

Does the company CURRENTLY have one in place? The only reason I say that is because I wanted to do that this year but the whole thing got dragged out and while no money has gotten taken out (extra to go into the account) there was a threat of having to make up the difference per month based on the amount you chose.

ie I wanted roughly $55 per check ($120 a month) to go towards the FSA.

Well that works out to $1440 per year (roughly)

In april when it hadn't started yet and I was asking about it they told me that when it did go into place THEN I would have to makeup the $1440 divided by the checks left in the year.

ie when we didn't have it in place in June/July I was looking at a much higher per month rate ontop of my "ins". like 96+ per check and counting

Basically the company who we hired to do our insurance sucks donkey and they have no idea what the eff they were doing.

the other thing you have to remember is YOU are in control of your healthcare. IE if you need labs call around to find out who is cheapest instead of going to the one at your doctors office and you need to call pharmacies to find out where the drugs are cheapest.

(and they range all over the fricken place...seriously...who knew...$100 dollar difference in some cases for same meds same dosage.)

Just remember you're in control and it's fine. I like it better cause it's cheaper for DH and I.

sparker298 · November 2010

I love mine, its even attached to a credit card type thing and we just use that to make most purchases so we don't even have to file anything. Maybe a few that we do have to file, but if your employeer offers a flex card w/ it, make sure you get one. We don't have much OOP per year, just co pay and rx co pays so I don't contribute much I think its $20 per pay, but I did what jen said and looked back to our ins to see what we paid for the year.. And most ins show you that figure right online as total. GL!

FSAs (flexible spending accounts) Yay or Nay???

Re: FSAs (flexible spending accounts) Yay or Nay???

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