Maybe this should be in the rant thread, maybe politics because it involves federal taxes. What is the stated benefit for conflating healthcare insurance benefits with funding of our government thru taxes? And is that benefit happening? Is it to help me save money? Is it to help my total costs of healthcare go down? Is it help insurance companies squeeze more pennies and charge more for their services? Or give the IRS one more point of complication?
HSA's are a great investment vehicle (instead of a way to help fund medical costs). That probably shouldn't be the original intention, but even if it is, only 10% of Americans have access to an HSA. So how is this a benefit to most avg Joes OR the gov?
More people have access to FSA's but FSA's suck because of the "use it or lose it". Everyone I know who does an FSA struggles to optimize it. They either over-contribute then become consumers of shit they didn't need. So they save some money on taxes then are forced to spend some of those savings on bandaids, tylenol or other crap. And they were forced into an administrative burden to ensure they weren't losing their money. Or they just aren't contributing much at all for fear of over-consumption and STILL have to spend time of the administrative burden to ensure they're spending their un-taxed money.
I'm sure the manufacturers of the bandaids and target and all the pharmacies like the end-of-yr rush. Still, apparently BILLIONS are unspent each yr, i'm pretty sure Cigna, UnitedHealth and those reap all that.
If the point is "cheaper healthcare", isn't there a better way to lower costs for EVERYONE while also reducing the administrative burden of spreadsheets and reminders and trackers and claims? If the point is savings thru lower taxes. isn't there a more equitable way to do this?
HSA's are a great investment vehicle (instead of a way to help fund medical costs). That probably shouldn't be the original intention, but even if it is, only 10% of Americans have access to an HSA. So how is this a benefit to most avg Joes OR the gov?
More people have access to FSA's but FSA's suck because of the "use it or lose it". Everyone I know who does an FSA struggles to optimize it. They either over-contribute then become consumers of shit they didn't need. So they save some money on taxes then are forced to spend some of those savings on bandaids, tylenol or other crap. And they were forced into an administrative burden to ensure they weren't losing their money. Or they just aren't contributing much at all for fear of over-consumption and STILL have to spend time of the administrative burden to ensure they're spending their un-taxed money.
I'm sure the manufacturers of the bandaids and target and all the pharmacies like the end-of-yr rush. Still, apparently BILLIONS are unspent each yr, i'm pretty sure Cigna, UnitedHealth and those reap all that.
If the point is "cheaper healthcare", isn't there a better way to lower costs for EVERYONE while also reducing the administrative burden of spreadsheets and reminders and trackers and claims? If the point is savings thru lower taxes. isn't there a more equitable way to do this?
