"Publication 969 does not address the situation of withdrawing HSA amounts in one year on the possibility that they might be spent on qualified medical expenses in a future year"
I didn't mean to imply that. An HSA distribution in the current year can be applied to a medical expense incurred in the current year or to a medical expense incurred in an earlier year, as long as the expense was incurred after the establishment of the HSA. I'll update my previous comment to be more specific.
