Hey there, welcome back to episode 966 of Money Girl.

I really appreciate you downloading the show and spending a little time with me.

I'm Laura Adams, an award-winning author, on-camera spokesperson, money speaker, and founder of

the Money Stack.

That's my substack newsletter.

You can learn more, ask money questions, and sign up for free for the money stack at

laura d adams.com. You can also leave a voice message with a question or comment by calling

302-364-0308. I'd love to feature your question on Finance Friday, which is our weekly

Q&A bonus edition of the show. One of my favorite tax-advantaged accounts of all time is a health

savings account, or HSA for short.

Since October 15th is National HSA Awareness Day, this podcast will review the powerful

benefits of HSAs and how they were designed to help Americans prepare for unexpected health care costs and retirement.

So let's talk about how an HSA actually works.

An HSA is simply one type of medical savings account, and as I mentioned, it was designed

specifically to pay eligible health care expenses. However, to qualify for this

amazing account, you must have a particular type of high deductible health plan that is

HSA qualified. And you can purchase this type of insurance on your own, or you can get it

through an employer.

A health plan deductible is the amount that you have to pay out of pocket for covered medical

expenses before your policy benefits begin each year. So deductibles and premiums have an

inverse relationship, meaning that increasing one causes the other to decrease.

Therefore, having a higher deductible means you pay more out of pocket, but you've got lower monthly insurance premiums.

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