What the question is really trying to ask is "Did you use the last-month rule in the previous year?" But, of course, almost no taxpayers know what this rule is (and not many tax professionals, either).
So a while ago, the question was changed to "What type of High Deductible Health Plan did [name] have on December 1, 20XX?". The issue here was that everyone got this question, even those without an HSA. And too many taxpayers did not realize that a High Deductible Health Plan was a specialized form of health coverage that didn't apply to a lot of taxpayers. These are the people that the question doesn't apply to.
In addition, when this change was made, the TurboTax programmers did not realize that this question assumed that TurboTax knew the HDHP coverage status of the taxpayer for the current year. The issue there was that if one spouse did not have an HSA, then you never had a chance to tell TurboTax what that spouse's HDHP coverage was for the current year. So when you answer for the previous year, TurboTax incorrectly assumes that the coverage has lapsed.
We have asked the programmers to change this question, but NOT to go back to the previous wording, because that was worse. The problem is that we have to teach taxpayers a lot about HSAs in order to ask the question, and TurboTax is designed to be a DIY product, wherein the user understands taxation. If a taxpayer realizes that there is a lot they don't understand about taxation, then they are invited to use the TurboTax Live Full Service, wherein a tax professional who understands taxation issues would do your return and sign it for you.
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