Qualifying for a Subsidy May Make You Ineligible for an HSA Plan

If someone buys a Health Savings Account (HSA) plan, federal law requires that health plan to have a deductible of at least $1,250 per individual and $2,500 per family.  

If you select a Silver level HSA plan on the exchange, if you receive special discounts, those discounts may make you ineligible for the HSA.

These special discounts will decrease the deductible and out-of-pocket costs.  Sometimes a subsidy can decrease these amounts enough to drop them below the federal government’s minimum deductible threshold for HSA eligibility.  If this happens, you will become ineligible for the HSA feature, but automatically enrolled in the base plan without the HSA component.  Unfortunately at this time there is no notification from the Exchange to alert the customer to this problem.  

If this happens to you, just realize you can keep your plan, but not the HSA feature.  

If you want the HSA feature, you will have to wait until the next open enrollment period to select a qualified plan.  

Some of this information was taken from an email I received from Anthem. Please consult with your tax advisor, and your insurance broker for your specific situation.