Comments on: What does “FSA” stand for anyway?

By: Moira

Moira — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 17:13:34 +0000

You should definitely use the medical FSA! You can use it for dental work, Rx and dr. office co-pays, etc., sure, you know that. But you can also use it for contact lens solution, and OTC medications. Hello, children’s Tylenol. I probably spend $100+ just on that! Some people have the reimbursed money put straight into savings, which is a smart thing to do. Imagine putting $5K a year in your kids’ savings account or college account, with no extra “saving” on your part. I think that’s worth faxing a receipt to your HR dept!

By: hola, isabel » Blog Archive » So it’s not underground, right?

hola, isabel » Blog Archive » So it’s not underground, right? — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 15:28:15 +0000

[...] come on over to my latest SeattleMomBlogs post to join the discussion about Flexible Spending [...]

By: Dugi

Dugi — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 17:56:08 +0000

I’ve heard of FSA. It’s quite fascinating. I say go with whatever keeps the tax man quiet and gives u more money to sort out the essentials.
P.S I heard from a very reliable sounding financial adviser on the news that Washington is the best State to move to in the US in regards to income tax/insurence/primary education and home ownership. I was quietly very happy that you are already there.

By: Vesper

Vesper — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 14:35:01 +0000

So I don’t know if this has already been mentioned b/c I’m short on time and didn’t read everyone else’s comments, but you just have to be careful about not taking out too much FSA. I work at a dentist office and my hubby needed 3 crowns this year. Knowing the cost of said crowns, we decided to take the full FSA medical out. Well, after talking to the dentist, and working for hours on my husband AFTER work, we ended up only paying about $250 out of pocket for his crowns. That presented a huge problem of now trying to figure out how to spend $1000 + before the end of the year. I think we’ll make it but still we’ve had to do some pretty frivolous things ( like spend nearly $800 on new glasses for my husband and $130 on compression tights for my pregnant belly and legs). Basically my only advise is don’t take out too much so you dont’ have to scramble to try and spend it before the end of the year!

By: a happier girl

a happier girl — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 21:05:28 +0000

I’m not an accountant but I took several income tax related classes in law school. Deducting expenses using an FSA works out better for you than the childcare tax credit. You pay less taxes. Deductions are nice. But reducing your taxable income which is what the FSA does is way better. Because paying less taxes means more money in your pocket. We don’t have lots of medical expenses (knock on wood) but we do it based on a rough estimate of the copays over the course of a year for prescriptions my husband takes daily, one trip to the gynocologist for me, a routine doctor visit for each kid and at least 1 or 2 sick kid visits to the doctor. Throw in a trip or two to the dentist and it’s several hundred dollars. The paperwork to get reimbursed seemed intimidating in the beginning but it gets easier once you know what you’re doing.

By: April

April — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 21:00:03 +0000

I have used my FSA extensively – my place of work gives you a debit card, so you don’t even have to spend the money out-of-pocket. It is completely awesome, and I used the money to get some major dental work last year, and LASIK vision correction the year before that. I would highly recommend checking out how yours works – it may be as easy as handing your doctor a different debit card, like mine is!!

By: Liza

Liza — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 17:46:38 +0000

FSAs are Da Bomb.

Those of you in the “infertility treatment” universe may be interested to know that sperm from a cryobank are a “qualified medical expense” under the FSA rules. Since they can cost anywhere from $200-500 per vial, paying for them pre-tax can be a huge savings. I assume donor eggs are too. Storage of the “frozen samples” is also an allowed expense.

This year, I paid for Lasik with my health care FSA. In 2006, I overestimated what I would need and wound up buying almost $800 worth of tylenol/rolaids/bandaids at 11pm on New Year’s Eve. (What do you mean, get a life?)

By: Frema

Frema — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 17:26:33 +0000

I have a health savings account, so I don’t need an FSA, but dude, you can also totally use FSA funds for things like glasses, medications, etc. You get to decide how much you want to put in.

And yes, FSA money disappears at the end of the calendar year, but you can totally use it to stock up on things like aspirin, band-aids, and stuff like that.

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 16:22:38 +0000

I am not too familiar with FSA either. I guess it comes from growing up in a family with no insurance? Nice. This year I decided to put in $10 a month. I thought I could use it for the leftover costs from my birth control or maybe towards vision and dentist costs. Not that $10 a month is going to cover much at either place.

My gripe is that yes, vision and dental insurance are relatively inexpensive, but I would rather pay a little more a month to have better coverage. This is considering that I basically only get a discount on my vision and the dental covers such a small percentage of the expensive procedures. Boo.

Inusrance is so dang confusing. All I know is that if I die, my husband gets my salary times five. Lucky bastard.

By: Baby Dumpling's Dad

Baby Dumpling's Dad — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 03:08:21 +0000

I haven’t used FSA for daycare but I’ve been using it for medical and like most say use it or loose it. I didn’t have to worry much about paperwork because my insurance allowed the medical and FSA to be linked. Usually I got the check before the bill arrived. Because of the use it or loose it thing next year I decided to go with HSA.