FSA "Flexible" spending accounts.

Lets talk about “Flexible” spending accounts and what a crock of shit they are.

So you save money on taxes; barely, you're basically just not taxed on it as income so it marginally reduces your tax burden. In order to get this modicum of savings on your no more than $2650 per qualified individual, you have to waste time jumping through hoops and getting stupid letters of medical necessity from your doctor. Using the money at a doctors office isn't enough proof that it is a covered service. No, you need to mail in a copy of every damn receipt of every service you use the card for. The only place that I haven't had to submit receipts for is the pharmacy, and I'm assuming that's because they denote anything that qualifies as a FSA item on the receipt.

So once they decide that they want to have a receipt for a service, they freeze the card. I find that I can usually pay a bunch of things off in the same day before it is frozen, but that isn't always the case. I try to pay the largest bills first. If you send in the receipts and they aren't detailed enough, they will request a letter from your doctor stating why the procedure or visit was medically necessary. Until all of this is done you can't use the card to pay for anything else, including prescriptions.

I know it doesn't seem like that big of a deal, but when you have to also fight the insurance to cover things that are deemed medically needed by your doctor but that they want to deny because it costs them too much money it is infuriating and frustrating beyond belief. Our healthcare system is a disaster and needs ground up reformation.

It's especially frustrating because there is no easy way to give them the receipts. I wish I could just email the receipt at the time of service, because that would make things much easier. 

I won't be doing another FSA after this year. There doesn't seem to be any benefit to it anymore. 

Oh, and our insurance rates are going up again! Lucky me with these preexisting conditions. Hopefully I continue to be covered. Hard to stretch the money when my doctors are chasing diagnosis and I need expensive tests. And I need another surgery but I am putting if off for as long as possible because again, $$$.

http://paypal.me/valarie if you feel like kicking something in to help pay medical bills. I pay it forward when I can but I'm really struggling right now. I was hoping that my credit would finally recover since I've been covered for a while now and we've been working hard to pay all the bills, but I still have quite a few outstanding things that need to be paid so they don't go to collections. I am looking for a job but it is hard to find something that either pays enough to cover childcare or allows the flexibility to work around my husband's schedule. I also have limitations as to what kind of work I can do, and standing for 8 hours is out.

Oh did I mention that my insurance no longer covers my naturopath? If I want to see her anymore I have to pay completely out of pocket. They don't even cover it as out of network, even though she is listed as in network on their website and I verified that before renewing our insurance policy last open enrollment.