cobra and HSA

lmarsh4444 — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 06:53:44 GMT

I was on my spouse's health insurance when he retired in June and went on Medicare, so at that time I went on Cobra. He had been contributing to his HSA. Can I continue to contribute to the HSA? And, if so, can I contribute retroactively back to November and then through the end of this year? Will this be tax deductible when we file our taxes since I will be contributing after tax money?

Re: cobra and HSA

jeffvikings — Wed, 16 Nov 2022 22:01:13 GMT

Based on your fact pattern you can continue to contribute as a single person not family to the HSA plan as you are still on an HSA qualified plan (high deductible plan) and you are not on Medicare (assumption)?

You will be able to take a tax deduction for the contributions to an HSA plan (form 8889) for the amount personally contributed vs what was taken from husbands check on pre tax basis.

You can contribute to the plan on a prorata basis for each month you were in the plan during the year. Thus if you were on the plan all year and you are over 55 you can contribute into the plan a total of $3,650 plus the additional $1000 for being over 55 (provided you are). Your husband on the other hand can only contribute a total of $3,650/12*6 or $1825 plus and addition $1000/12*6 (since on medicare no assumption needed) or $500 for a total of $2,325. Thus you should make sure the combined contributions of employer, employee (husband) while working and additional contributions don't exceed $6,975 (again assuming he was on plan from Jan-June 30 and you were on the plan all of 2022.

Be careful with health insurance premiums as most are not allowed to be paid out of HSA. Here are some of the exceptions:

Qualified long-term care insurance
COBRA or State Continuation health care continuation coverage
Health care coverage while an individual is receiving unemployment compensation
For individuals over age 65 — premiums for Medicare A or B, Medicare HMO, and the employee share of premium for employer-sponsored health insurance

Supplemental health plans when retired do not qualify.

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cobra and HSA

Re: cobra and HSA