Top Surprising Medical Expenses Covered by HSAs

HSA is a health spending account that you can use to cover your medical expenses. It can save you hundreds of dollars per year because you put in part of your pretax income into this savings account. However, since you can only contribute a maximum of $3,400 for an individual health insurance plan and $6750 for a family plan, you should still get several health insurance quotes to save on your insurance costs.

Premiums aren’t the only type of medical expenses that you can use the HSA money for. Here are some other expenses that qualify:

1. Guide Dog. If you’re visually or hearing impaired, you can use the money to cover the costs of buying, training, and maintaining your guide dog. It doesn’t even have to be a dog, and it can be for other physical disabilities. The money can be used for their veterinary care and food, and even for grooming.
2. Certain Legal Fees. These are the legal fees you have to pay so that you’re able to authorize the necessary treatment for mental illnesses. This doesn’t cover fees for managing the estate or conducting the affairs of the patient.
3. Osteopathy is a kind of alternative medicine that not everyone in the medical community thinks of as “real” science. However, it’s real enough for the IRS, and you can consider the fees charged by an osteopath as a medical expense.

1. Specially Subtitled TVs. If you have a hearing disability, you can get subtitles displayed for the audio parts of TV programs. This can be the price of the special adapter you attach to the TV set or the price difference between a regular TV and a special TV with this feature.
2. Car modifications. When you have a physical disability, your car may have to be specially modified before you’re able to ride in it. The cost of these modifications may be covered by your HSA.
3. Contact Lenses. These are covered only if you need them for medical (and not cosmetic) reasons. You can also add the cost of the various materials you need to use these contact lenses, such as the enzyme cleaner and the saline solution.
4. Braille Books and Magazines. If you’re visually impaired, the only way you can read is if you have reading materials in Braille. If that’s the case, then you can use the HSA money to pay for the price difference between a regular printed version and the Braille version.
5. Birth control pills. You can also use the money in your HSA account to pay for birth control pills if they’re prescribed by your doctor.
6. Quit-Smoking Programs. Good for you if you decide to quit smoking, and the fees for programs to help you quit can be covered as a medical expense. However, medicines and other items that can help you quit are not covered as a medical expense if they don’t require a prescription.
7. Breast Reconstruction Surgery. The cost of this surgery and the cost of the breast prosthesis are both covered as medical expenses after getting a mastectomy for cancer.

HSAs are great, as they can be used to pay for a very long list of medical expenses. It’s better to use your pretax income as you can save hundreds of dollars in taxes—and you can use them to pay a portion of your premiums too.