Flexible Spending Account - FSA

Categories: Insurance, Tax

An FSA, or flexible spending account, is a tax-advantaged bank account used for a special purpose. Similar to a health savings account (HSA). An FSA is something your employer might include as a benefits package option.

Before the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, a major con of flexible spending accounts was that any money not used by the end of the year went to the employer...i.e., it was a use-it-or-lose-it situation. Under the Affordable Care Act though, FSAs now allow employees to carry up to $500 from one year to the next.

Health FSAs can be used for paying deductibles and copayments on medical and dental expenses. Dependent care FSAs are also common; they put money aside for caretakers to care for dependents that they’re responsible for: kids, the elderly, or those with physical and/or mental limitations.

Related or Semi-related Video

Finance: What is medicare versus medicai...3 Views

00:00

Finance allah shmoop what is medicaid medic You hear the

00:07

soldier screaming all the time in war movies i need

00:10

aid Well that kind of is what it is Financial

00:13

aid but medicaid is basically health insurance for the poor

00:16

that is administered by the states but whose purse strings

00:19

are generally controlled federally i'ii centrally In washington medicaid is

00:24

the financial health bomb for over sixty five million americans

00:27

who simply can't afford their own health insurance Taxpayers give

00:31

their dough to the government which then re apportions it

00:33

to the masses to pay for everything from treatment of

00:36

boo boos and out cheese Teo you know serious things

00:39

Why do we have it Why do we have medicaid

00:41

Well if you're a middle class quote average josie unquote

00:45

in this country and on any given sunday night you're

00:48

sitting in your heated home while it's snowing outside and

00:51

you have your tv on and you belt from a

00:53

nice meal How you going to feel seeing a slow

00:56

moving stream of homeless joe's walking by outside coughing desperate

01:01

for health care How does that feel Well maybe the

01:03

costs were so high they used to be you sitting

01:06

In there nice warm house but their kid got sick

01:10

or they got sick or something else happened and had

01:13

to sell their home their car everything covered the doctor

01:15

bills So yeah as a country we just don't do

01:18

india Yeah we don't treat people like that We don't

01:20

have our politicians and successful people live like this while

01:24

the huge percentage of our population you know lives like

01:27

this Medicaid is one of a bunch of social welfare

01:30

entitlements we offer as a country and we posit that

01:33

these combined are in fact one of the many things

01:35

that does make us great So yeah medicaid is specifically

01:39

angled toward covering the medical cost of the poor it's

01:41

not done perfectly it's not done efficiently it could be

01:43

done a whole lot better but at least it's done

01:46

We also have medicare which covers the medical costs of

01:49

the old the g's er's the ones who no longer

01:52

work for the most part except for driving for uber

01:55

there are over sixty five and many of them are

01:57

sick or at least they need pills in one form

01:59

or another Medicare comes in a few flavors all named

02:02

part this and part that like there's part ay which

02:04

covers hospital insurance ever been to an e r they

02:07

cost like a grand or three a night Yes more

02:11

than the honeymoon suite at pebble beach and way less

02:14

fun And if things are really bad it covers hospice

02:17

Yeah for the the end with capitol the end then

02:20

there's part b which covers the more basic less emergency

02:23

today today outpatient care issues from pill subscriptions toe therapy

02:28

then there's part c which is basically the arrangement between

02:31

your employer and government health care You know hmo's p

02:33

pose and so on that is essentially your employer pays

02:37

medicare to just handle your coverage soup to nuts and

02:40

you know unless you're allergic to nuts don't don't don't

02:44

do that and party is all about drugs D for

02:47

drugs see thats what it stands for that's how you

02:49

remember it that's medicare and medicaid these social entitlements while

02:52

helping plenty of people cost the country of fortune And

02:56

yes there is corruption in the system and lazy people

02:59

who are just they're collecting a paycheck And yes computers

03:02

and robots will help us manage all this stuff more

03:04

efficiently in the future But the suffering they stave off 00:03:07.92 --> [endTime] is worth it

Find other enlightening terms in Shmoop Finance Genius Bar(f)