One way to manage your health care expenses is by enrolling in a High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP) in combination with opening a Health Savings Account (HSA).
How High Deductible Health Plans and Health Savings Accounts can reduce your costs
- If you enroll in an HDHP, you may pay a lower monthly premium but have a higher deductible (meaning you pay for more of your health care items and services before the insurance plan pays).
- If you combine your HDHP with an HSA, you can pay that deductible, plus other qualified medical expenses, using money you set aside in your tax-free HSA.
- So if you have an HDHP and don’t need many health care items and services, you may benefit from a lower monthly premium. If you need more care, you’ll save by using the tax-free money in your HSA to pay for it.
- Your HSA balance rolls over year to year, so you can build up reserves to pay for health care items and services you need later.
What’s considered a High Deductible Health Plan?
Under the tax law, HDHPs must set a minimum deductible and a limit, or maximum, on out-of-pocket costs.
For calendar year 2022, these amounts for HDHPs are:
| Minimum deductible (The amount you pay for health care items and services before your plan starts to pay) | Maximum out-of-pocket costs (The most you’d have to pay if you need more health care items and services) |
Individual HDHP | $1,400 | $7,050 |
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Family HDHP | $2,800 | $14,100 |
HDHP deductibles are often significantly higher than the minimums shown above and can be as high as the maximum out-of-pocket costs shown above.