Florida Individual Health Insurance
Medical Savings Accounts (MSA) 

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A Medical Savings Account (MSA) is a tax-deferred bank or savings account combined with a low-premium/ high-deductible insurance policy, designed for individuals or families in order to fund health care expenses and medical insurance. Participants are encouraged to invest the premium savings in a medical savings account by making tax-deductible contributions to the MSA. Medical expenses are paid out of the account until the deductible is reached. Unused monies in the account may be rolled over tax-free and when a threshold is reached, may be invested to pay for future medical expenses and more general uses after retirement.

Anyone who is self-employed or an employer with 50 or fewer employees is eligible to choose an MSA as an alternative to current ways of paying for medical care. For the self-employed and others, MSAs can be established by purchasing the high-deductible insurance policy and depositing the amount of the deductible in the MSA account. Health expenditures from the MSA account are tax-free and accumulated balances earn interest, which is also tax-free if used for medical expenses.

For an employee choosing an MSA, the employer would purchase a high-deductible (catastrophic) insurance policy for the employee and deposit cash into an MSA each year in lieu of providing the employee low-deductible insurance or enrollment in a Health Maintenance Organization (HMO). The price of the catastrophic health insurance policy plus the cash deposit should equal the cost of the alternative coverage. The employee then would use the cash in the MSA to pay ordinary health expenses until the deductible of the catastrophic policy is met. Unspent balances would be invested and would accumulate earnings that are tax-free.

There are two parts to a qualified medical savings account plan, the medical savings account and a high deductible health insurance plan.  The high deductible health insurance cannot be any health insurance plan, but must be specifically designed for medical savings accounts.  

The health insurance plan has deductibles in a range determined by the federal government.  The deductible is different than deductibles on individual health insurance plans.  The deductible is the combined eligible expenses of all family members that are on the health insurance plan. 

Available Plan Deductibles for 2004

In order to provide a quote the following information is needed for each family member enrolling

Name (only on primary insured)
Zipcode of residence in Florida
Age and/or date of birth
Sex
Smoker or nonsmoker
Height and weight
Health history current and past

These are medically underwritten plans.  For more information on that please go to Individual Health Insurance.

Please e-mail the information and note you are interested in an MSA plan.

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John K. Arnold
Florida Health Insurance
Group, Employee Benefits & Individual Health Insurance Specialist
Website Address  www.floridahealthinsurance.com
E-Mail: John K Arnold    

Phone: 407-592-0311 (Best number to reach me)
Phone: 407-830-0259
Fax:     407-386-7053

If outside the US, it is best to e-mail as we can respond more quickly.  Thanks.

Let me know how I can help you.

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