Ten Things You Should Know About Medical Savings Accounts

Written by Tony Novak


Medical Savings Accounts (MSAs) are promoted asrepparttar salvation of small businesses in desperate need of affordable health insurance plans. Forbes called MSAs "Super-IRAs" and Business Week wrote "almost too good to be true". Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Magazine said “if you are self-employed, you should jump atrepparttar 106705 chance to open an MSA”. The American Medical Association published a series of articles strongly supporting MSAs and these plans are promoted onrepparttar 106706 AMA's insurance Web site. Bothrepparttar 106707 Clinton and Bush administration and almost all federal lawmakers on both parties include MSAs as part ofrepparttar 106708 solution torepparttar 106709 national health care crisis. The insurance industry andrepparttar 106710 employee benefit industry strongly supportrepparttar 106711 use of MSAs. Business think tanks acrossrepparttar 106712 country repeatedly focus on ideas to expandrepparttar 106713 use of this promising financial tool inrepparttar 106714 marketplace.

Here are some things you should know before you consider switching health plans to a MSA:

1.MSAs cut overall long term health costs by about 1/3 for most people but they are not designed to cut your immediate cash outlay for medical plan. For example, if your family pays $650 per month for total medical and dental coverage right now, you should still plan to pay $650 per month in a new MSA plan. The only difference is that about half of your cost will go directly into your own account and only about half will go torepparttar 106715 insurance company. Overrepparttar 106716 long run, your account will be spent more effectively on your behalf thanrepparttar 106717 money paid for insurance premiums. But it takes time (usually about a year) to build up enough reserve in your account to be fully secure using higher deductible insurance.

2.At least 1 in 3 people who apply for a MSA plan do not qualify or are not good candidates for a MSA because they do not achieve any net savings in overall health costs when switching to a MSA. Those most likely to saverepparttar 106718 most money are young, self-employed, and healthy with historically few medical expenses. Those over age 60 generally do not realize any savings, but may achieve an improvement inrepparttar 106719 quality of health care by moving away fromrepparttar 106720 managed care healthcare systems to a private pay system. Qualification, rating and enrollment for individual and group MSA plans are handled by MedSave.com by telephone at (877) 529-7435.

3.MSAs put individual consumers and their personal physicians back in control of their own health care. This also means that each individual must be responsible for his/her own health care decisions. This approach of self-reliance is not always popular or appropriate for everyone, especially those who have become comfortable with HMO plans. MSAs are designed to encourage efficiency and cut waste in health care. But this also means that there is a chance that you may decide to bypass some medical testing or treatment in order to save your MSA money.

Organising Your Personal Affairs

Written by Lorraine Pirihi


I’m always amazed that so many people spend most of their life at work and totally neglect their personal affairs.

Many ofrepparttar business people I work with want their professional lives to be in order, and admit that their personal affairs are in chaos.

They have no systems for handling this most important area. The household paperwork is disorganised...piled up in a corner ofrepparttar 106704 house...somewhere, they have no idea where they spend their money and often have no plan for their financial future.

If you do not organise your personal life, you won’t have much of a future to look forward to.

Avoidrepparttar 106705 excuses that you are too tired, don’t haverepparttar 106706 time, don’t know how.

Here are a few tips to get you started:

Personal Papers 1. Set up a filing system to store your paperwork.

File your papers in categories: Bank, Car, Children, Home, Medical, Insurance, Investment, Tax, Utilities etc.

Organise direct debits for regular bills.

Read, sort and action your snail and e-mail daily. This will avoid a big build-up.

Make a note in your diary when you need to remember to do things.

Check your bank accounts weekly via phone orrepparttar 106707 Internet to keep tabs on your money.

Allocate a particular day and time each week to review your personal affairs.

Organising Your Financial Future This area should be top priority. If you do nothing because it’s too much effort well, think about this.

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