Not only do you want to know the little details about your health insurance policy, but it helps to investigate your hospital as well. Before our second child was born, we made an emergency room visit because my wife was feeling especially woozy and had even collapsed onto the bed. It turned out to be a simple sinus infection.

It also turns out that the hospital’s emergency room was operated a little differently than the rest of the hospital (something to do with ownership…), and so our insurance didn’t cover the visit. Now we know which emergency rooms do count, and next closest one is fifteen minutes farther away.

“even sock a few bucks away in an HSA”

I’m looking forward to learning more about HSAs first hand this summer. My wife is going to have the chance to switch this summer, but it might not be worth it yet since we have lots of scheduled doc visits for kids and our emergency fund isn’t as large as I’d like.

I do think we will switch in the next few years because HSAs make get retirement accounts. A large portion of retirement expenses will be medical related. So we can save now, take the deduction, and then take the money out tax free someday for medical expenses!