HSA | GubMints

A loyal GubMints reader writes:

I’m currently serving in the National Guard.

I use TRS as our only insurance for myself and my family. I serve in the Air National Guard, but I have an FSA available through my civilian employer. I was wondering if I can contribute to and use an FSA to pay for my TRS premium, and any other health care related expenses?

Can you contribute to either a Health Savings Account or Health Care Flexible Spending Account with your company while your primary insurance is Tricare Reserve Select?

I believe the answer is no to the HSA, and yes to a FSA, but I am having a hard time clarifying that research.

Thanks!

Thanks for your service, and thanks for reading!

For my answer, I am assuming you and your dependents are all on the same medical plan and you are not split between your self ‘solo’ on TriCare with your dependents enrolled on another health plan. Continue reading →

Happy Open Season, everyone!

OPM announced its Federal Employee Health Benefit (FEHB) rate hikes for 2016 FEHB Open Season.

OPM states that the average rate hike is 6.4 percent, which does not sound that bad.

…But the real news is not quite this good- Since none of the ‘averages’ are participation-weighted (that is, they pay no attention to what FEHB plans Feds actually select), the averages provided by OPM, GovExec, and FedTimes are essentially useless.

I’ll give you the only statistic that matters here, the one that applies to 40 percent of Feds. Continue reading →

Here’s an update to one of my more popular posts regarding Veterans and ObamaCare.

As of 2014, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), aka ObamaCare (I will use the more popular nickname for the rest of the article) is being listed as an option on the military’s Tricare website.

There’s no neon sign at the top of the Tricare page alerting you to this fact. It’s not listed as a disclaimer, waiver, footnote, or disclosure on the page. You have to read between the lines and click around to figure this out.

On Tricare’s page about ObamaCare, it states that any of the Tricare plans (plus the ‘US Family Health Plan’) meets the Obamacare ‘Minimum Essential Coverage’ standard as of 2014. In other words, if you’re enrolled in one of the Tricare plans, you ‘don’t need to take any action at this time’.

For those who feel like they need to dig deeper (and I always do), there is yet another link on the right to the ‘Tricare and the Affordable Care Act’ Fact Sheet , which states (last paragraph): Continue reading →

Happy Open Season, Feds!

It’s that time of year again where 95 percent of you do nothing and keep your existing health plan (for good reasons, see below).

For the minority of you who are considering switching plans, FEHB offers you the 3rd party tool PlanSmartChoice.com, which allows you to plug-in some assumptions about your family size and frequency of medical claims. If you’ve used PlanSmartChoice before, it retains the info you input from last year, which is nice. Here’s what it looks like for me: Continue reading →

GubMints

Personal Finance for Federal Employees, Veterans, and Sometimes Everyone

Tag Archives: HSA

Mixing TriCare with Civilian Health Benefits

Most Feds to pay 10.6% FEHB rate hike in 2016

ObamaCare- Veterans Should Not Apply?

PlanSmartChoice – A Flawed FEHB Open Season Analysis Tool