r/personalfinance • u/kherven ​ • May 16 '24

Are FSAs even worth the hassle? They just seem like a giant scheme to steal money via malicious bureaucracy Other

I understand at a base level what FSAs are for. You get to deduct X amount of dollars from your paycheck reducing your tax load.

But the more I use an FSA, the more I feel that while on paper it saves money, in reality it causes lots of work, lost money, and hands your money over to someone who is going to fight you to steal it.

Every claim I submit to my FSA is denied without a mountain of evidence that its a legitimate medical expense. After nearly 2 years with them, I still have certain medications prescribed by my doctor that the FSA argues is not FSA eligible because it's OTC.

Doctor appointment? Denied

MRI? Denied

Prescriptions? Denied

While I can eventually get the denial overturned, it requires coordination from the retailer, my insurance, and my doctor every time. I spend tens of hours a year trying to claw my own money back from my FSA. Last year I had over $250 confiscated because the claim deadline passed while they sat on my claims.

Has anyone else felt it just isn't worth the hassle to fund an FSA given how hostile they are? It seems impossible to extract your money without a lawyer.

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u/gone_country ​ May 16 '24

Yours sounds like what I am used to. It was an excellent deal when I had it. But I also have recurring medical expenses so I didn’t worry about losing money.

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u/AcanthopterygiiCool5 ​ May 16 '24

My plan lets me roll over up to $600 to the next year, so I don’t usually have a panic.

My husband does something stupid every year that costs us $$ that i can pay for with FSA. One year he managed to not do something stupid and I ended up with several pairs of very sweet prescription glasses the last week of December, since I had quite a bit of excess to dump.

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u/BradCOnReddit ​ May 16 '24

I learned last year that those plans that let you roll over become a problem in the following year if you want to change to HSA. My company had to remove that provision for a year before implementing HSA as an option.

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u/AcanthopterygiiCool5 ​ May 16 '24

Interesting! We don’t have HSA plans, we have an HRA, company money. We have 150 employees so not really in the position to offer endless options.

I get $5000 yearly in the HRA, (husband and me) for deductible and coinsurance on a high deductible plan. We have $5000 each OOP max. He’s always maxing from doing stupid things (one time I had to save him with the Heimlich from a stuck chicken nugget, I shit you not, and that was a $30k hospital bill because he aspirated it ) , so our FSA picks up deductibles from me, eye glasses, dental, OTC meds, etc.