U
Unregistered
Guest
I am an American and I live in India. The company I work for provides basic health insurance on a local basis, so I have no coverage in the US. That said, the insurance is through Aetna which, I believe, is a US based company. Based on my pay and cost of services here, I really have no worries about regular care. My wife had a fairly bad accident late last year, and while it is an experience I'd rather not repeat, the treatments she received were appropriate. We considered sending her out of country for treatment, which would have been covered, but in the end, did not. The total medical bill after 10 days in the hospital was $1,500. My guess is US treatment would have been >$50,000.
That said, I worry about unexpected major health problems such as cancer, organ failure, etc. I've been considering taking out a really high deductible health plan simply to provide coverage in case of a such a major event. Looks like I can cover the family with a $12k deductible plan for around $2,000 / year. Thus, I would never use the policy unless it was a major event and the $12k out of pocket would not be financial disasterous if follow on care was covered.
Now to the question. Anyone know the government policy on HSAs? I believe you cannot set up a HSA if you have other insurance in place. This leads me to two questions:
1) If my insurance doesn't offer coverage in the US, can I still legally have an HSA?
2) If I set up an HSA, how would the government know I actually have insurance in place?
I don't even know where to go to ask such questions. I know question (2) opens the question to some debate on morality. Kind of like asking, if I steal and do not get caught, is it wrong? That said, the government is taking a nice fat cut of my pay and I'm consuming absolutely no government resources, so I am a bit comfortable with cutting a corner assuming I don't get caught. They've taken their pound of flesh or more like $50k worth of flesh, and I'm just trying to make sure my family is insured properly at the lowest cost.
Flame suite on, but any ideas? Anyone have an answer or could anyone steer me to a place that might be able to answer my questions?
PS - From IRS, it looks like any insurance other than workmans comp disallows and HSA. I would like to see one of our government types live with Indian insurance. No one made me take the job and I am happy to have it, but the randomness of our laws makes me much more comfortable violating if I will not get caught.
That said, I worry about unexpected major health problems such as cancer, organ failure, etc. I've been considering taking out a really high deductible health plan simply to provide coverage in case of a such a major event. Looks like I can cover the family with a $12k deductible plan for around $2,000 / year. Thus, I would never use the policy unless it was a major event and the $12k out of pocket would not be financial disasterous if follow on care was covered.
Now to the question. Anyone know the government policy on HSAs? I believe you cannot set up a HSA if you have other insurance in place. This leads me to two questions:
1) If my insurance doesn't offer coverage in the US, can I still legally have an HSA?
2) If I set up an HSA, how would the government know I actually have insurance in place?
I don't even know where to go to ask such questions. I know question (2) opens the question to some debate on morality. Kind of like asking, if I steal and do not get caught, is it wrong? That said, the government is taking a nice fat cut of my pay and I'm consuming absolutely no government resources, so I am a bit comfortable with cutting a corner assuming I don't get caught. They've taken their pound of flesh or more like $50k worth of flesh, and I'm just trying to make sure my family is insured properly at the lowest cost.
Flame suite on, but any ideas? Anyone have an answer or could anyone steer me to a place that might be able to answer my questions?
PS - From IRS, it looks like any insurance other than workmans comp disallows and HSA. I would like to see one of our government types live with Indian insurance. No one made me take the job and I am happy to have it, but the randomness of our laws makes me much more comfortable violating if I will not get caught.