i don't know about allen, but i'm paying after tax........of course with the premium and deductable i might get some tax relief

 took the liberty Toner of adding to your topic title to more accurately reflect the direction this topic is going . hope you don't mind . i intend to call Aetna this next week and if the answers to my questions are as i suspect , i will probably open a HSA with Aetna either this year or next .

i will report here on my findings and my experiences . thanks    again for pointing me in this direction with your original question when you started this topic .

 More on HSA's---In the 2006 enrollment guide, it mentioned that the Xerox Credit Union was also available for HSA's. So I gave them a call, and so far the communications has been favorable. The Gal at the Credit Union says I can place up to $5100 per yr. in the pre tax account, and have the balance roll over year to year up to age 65 where one can withdraw it for what ever reason one chooses. But I bet if not taken for justified medical reasons, such as a fishing trip to see Clayt in Alaska, and have Al buy breakfast, that I would end up paying taxes on those monies. She also said that I could have monies taken from my xerox 401k savings plan tp fund the HSA account. It sort of sounds too good to be true. One does need to be a member of the Credit Union to qualify. I shall keep you posted if and when this plan flies. She is sending me a snail mail application for the HSA account.--later--

 this is my report on my telephone call this morning to Aetna's HSA ( Health Savings Account ) to ask additional questions about setting up my account . after all this calling around these last several days , i'm finally realizing that i've been transfered to the Aetna member services all this time while i was on hold with either xerox / hewitt or ADP telephone numbers . so in the future , i now have taken names of reps i'm talking to and / or extention numbers . the Aetna telephone number is : 866 - 253 - 8885 . and if you encounter any difficulty with the rep that answers the phone saying they don't know anything about HSAs and want to transfer you or have you call xerox / hewitt or ADP , tell them , ' no thanks ' and persist in having them refer you to the HSA department within Aetna .

i now have an enrollment packet coming to my temperary mailing address here in Kailua - Kona . and as of my conversation this morning , i'm allowed a  $1,866 deposit ( pro - rated ) for this year ( 2005 ) . and a  $6,334 deposit for next year ( 2006 ) . for a total of  $8,200 to bring me up to date to start out next year . going forward after that for additional years , i will be allowed the maximum for those years in additional to the ' catch up ' contributions allowed people over 55 .

i will be allowed to fund a HSA until i qualify for Medicare ( 65 ) , after which i will no longer be able to fund and make future deposits but will be able to use any and all of those monies for expenses for whatever my medical or dental provider doesn't cover even later under Medicare . this account will earn money tax free and i'm allowed a full tax deduction for the year i make the deposit . plus this account can be used by my wife and passed on to her in the event of my death . in the explanation used in the government web site and paperwork , IRA is used to explain the similarities .

when i receive my package i'll probably call Aetna again before sending them the deposit slip in my materials . right now i'm thinking i'll probably want to make the full deposit this year , but i'll probably want to write two checks : one for the 2005 calendar amount and the other for the 2006 amount to be able to keep the IRS happy later if there's any questions later .

my phone time , mostly on hold , was an hour and forty minutes yesterday and fifty seven minutes this morning . most of this was because i called either xerox / hewitt or ADP and waited on hold while they patched me through to Aetna members services again . my mistakes was in the beginning when the Aetna rep didn't know what i was talking about when i asked for information on HSA's and she wanted to assist me in solving my problem and called / switched me to the other two totally seperate numbers . course , while i was on hold , i often didn't realize that in the beginning .

i will give additional follow up after i get my packet or if i call Aetna again . looking forward to hearing from big ' O ' with his experiences with the Xerox Federal Credit union . you readers should get excellent coverage of this HSA experience from our two seperate discussions with these two different custodians .

stay tuned

 hello Toner ,

i had a similar problem several years ago when xerox first came out with their medical coverage costing us more . for years i had been covered by UnitedHealthcare under some ' less than high deductable ' plan that didn't cost me very much and , of course , i was dumb ( as to the costs of health care ) and happy in my ignorance and rarely used my health care provider coverage anyway .

AFTER  xerox had to increase our costs because their costs were climbing through the ceiling , if i had stayed with the same carrier , my health care expense was going to increase by a factor of 4 , or 400% . that's when i took a serious look at ALL my options and began to choose a cheaper ' high ' deductable plan . in my different plan options , the difference in deductables this year isn't that much . my deductable with my ' high ' deductable Aetna is $1,500 ( single ) and $3,000 ( family ) . in a ' moderate ' deductable plan offered to me , the deductable is $1,200 ( single ) and $2,400 ( family ) . and in a ' low ' deductable plan offered to me the deductable is $600 ( single ) and $1,200 ( family ) . and finally in the ' blended ' option the deductable is $600 ( single ) and $1,200 ( family ) . after that deductable is paid , the coverage is pretty much exactly the same .

as you can see , to my way of thinking anyway    , there isn't $900 worth of difference between the single deductable on all three options and $1,800 worth of difference between the options on the family deductable ; and yet , the difference in the costs or premiums is lot higher with the lower deductable plans and alot cheaper with the ' high ' deductable plan . so , i'd rather save thousands a year in my annual costs and pay the difference IF i need health care in my deductable .

i'm just glad i have a choice to choose a cheaper plan and still maintain some kind of ' catastrophic ' coverage that would threaten my critical mass and deplete / hurt my retirement funds if i had to pay for the whole bill without some kind of medical coverage .

and , by the way , i'm still waiting for my enrollment package from Aetna for their Health Saving Account and still intend to make a pro - rated deposit for this calendar year and a full deposit next calendar year . i'll let ya , and this topic , know when i get it . my intent is to get a FULL tax deduction for money deposited in this account and use that money for paying my ( higher ? ) deductables and have it earn me tax free income while it's sitting there waiting for me to write checks against or ' swip ' my debt card . sounds like a ' win , win ' situation to me .  B)  .

 received my HSA packet today in my forwarded mail . contains several deposit slips , a Visa debit / credit card , and a ' Additional HSA Options Election ' form where i can request that a ' checkbook ' be sent to me along with a ' Check Signature Card ' form to complete and send back .

i can't seem to find an account number in my paperwork nor a pin number to sign into my account on line so i'll call Aetna member services tomorrow morning and see if i can't move this ball forward .

i'll also need an amount that i can deposit for this year ( 2005 ) and for next year ( 2006 ) . my paperwork contains several warnings about the penalities for over deposting too much money in your HSA . excess contributions are treated as income and are subject to a six percent penalty if not withdrawn from your HSA before filing your federal income tax return for the taxable year . and to withdraw excess contributions from your HSA you have to contact Member Services and request a copy of the ' Request for Return of Mistaken HSA Contribution ' form . so i'm going to try not to go over .

stay tuned

 i'm considering the credit union as well, so i would like to see how big "O" makes out