Hey! You Can Use Your HSA to Pay for Tampons (!!!)
There’s this magical thing, and it’s buried in a very under-the-radar section of the CARES Act—the legislation passed in March 2020 to help people out during COVID-19.
If you’re like me, you were probably too distracted by the $1,200 check to notice what honestly should have been highlighted and put in 72-point font with, like, 15 exclamation points: Menstrual products (tampons! pads! cups! liners!!!!), over-the-counter meds, and even ice packs and sunscreen now qualify as “medical expenses” worthy of your HSA cash.
Let me break this down a lil more: You have to actually have either an HSA or FSA to get in on this (see below if you’re like, Ummm?). In the past, any savings in these accounts could be used for only a pretty limited list of medical expenses (co-pays, prescription meds, X-rays, and whatnot), but now all these other things are fair game too.
This is particularly great for people with use-it-or-lose-it FSAs—so go ahead, buy all the tampons you want (I mean, leave some for the rest of us, but you get what I’m saying) before that money poofs at the end of the year. (So bookmark this for December 2021, bb!)
It also feels important to note here that Amazon has an entire section dedicated to stuff you can now buy with your HSA or FSA dough (Amazon.com/HSA). It’s not another $1,200 check, but I’ll take it.
HSA? FSA? WTF?
You can opt into a health savings account (HSA) or flexible spending account (FSA) during your health insurance’s open enrollment. Both help you pay for medical thangs with tax-free money. HSAs have higher savings limits, so they’re great for ppl with high-deductible plans. FSAs, btw, do not roll over year to year, so they’re best for very good planners.
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