@rwsulli wrote:
Not really sure what the much more detail is. Wife is employed and covered by a HDHP from her employer. I am retired and covered under her plan. She had a kidney transplant in May, recovered and is back at work. No lapse of insurance coverage. The Medicare ESRD covered the transplant and her meds.
Turbo Tax keeps saying there was a lapse in coverage, where there was none. And why can we not contribute to our HSA, just because of a transplant? We have lots of other medications that we pay for that are not covered under the ESRD program. Seems like this is a bug in Turbo Tax.
Even if you have a qualifying HDHP, if you also have any other kind of medical insurance on top of the HDHP, you are ineligible to contribute to an HDHP. That's simply how the law was written. Having Medicare coverage disqualifies your wife from making any contributions to an HSA effective whenever the Medicare became effective.
"We" don't have an HSA, there is no "our" HSA. An HSA is owned by one person only, similar to an IRA. If you are covered by your spouse's HSA, you are allowed to contribute to an HSA in your own name, or your spouse can contribute to an HSA in her own name, but there are no joint accounts.
As I said, your wife's contributions to her HSA are limited for 2020 because she had other insurance coverage. I don't know when the coverage started, you might know that. I also don't know when the coverage ended -- if it is now continuous coverage, at least as far as her transplant is concerned, then she is forever ineligible from making new contributions. That is something you will have to review with a Medicare specialist. Your contributions to an HSA are not limited by your wife having secondary insurance coverage, so you may need to withdraw the money from your wife's account and deposit it as a new contribution to an account in your name. (There are many banks that will allow you to open a private HSA, it doesn't have to be an employer-sponsored account.). However, be aware of the limitation on "other" medical coverage. As soon as you become eligible for Medicare yourself, your eligibility to contribute to an HSA ends.
I don't have confidence you are answering the HDHP questions in the interview correctly. The "lapse" issue is separate from the fact that your wife is disqualified by her Medicare coverage and her contributions will be limited for that reason. Plus there is the issue that you need to remove the excess contributions from your wife's account and think about opening an account in your name to accept contributions, if you aren't covered by Medicare. I really want to you get competent professional help this year.
