Can I use my HSA to pay my wife's Medicare premiums?

[dorentax]

I am 62 and had to retire in July of this year ( to be the primary care provider), due to my wife who is 66 and is a terminal cancer patient. I have an HSA account and am paying my own insurance payments. Can I use the money in the HSA to pay my premiums and can I use the money to pay my wife’s Medicare premium’s ?

[xmasbaby0]

<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.bcbsm.com/index/health-insurance-help/faqs/plan-types/health-spending-accounts/how-to-use...>

[dorentax]

This I have seen but does not answer the question.

[dmertz · Accepted solution]

See Insurance premiums in IRS Pub 969:

https://www.irs.gov/publications/p969/ar02.html#en_US_2016_publink1000204081

From this it appears that, except for COBRA payments you might make after retiring, neither of these is a qualified medical expense payable from your HSA because you are not age 65 or older.

[Zbucklyo]

See IRS Publication 502, specifically pages 8-10.

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p502.pdf

[dorentax]

I have read this, still does not answer the  question. PDF is to general.

[mcknight1dk]

As I understand it, this answer is not quite correct.

TWO POINTS...

1) Qualified medical expenses have nothing to do with retirement age. If his wife is on Medicare, premiums paid for parts B and D (or a Medicare Advantage plan), qualify as medical expenses which can be reimbursed out of the spouse's HSA. Also any co-pays qualify -- but not premiums for a Medigap policy.

2) Similarly his health insurance premiums and co-pays qualify as a medical expense as long as his premiums are paid on a COBRA policy after the end of employment or he is receiving unemployment insurance (regular health insurance premiums either paid directly by him or his employer are not qualified expenses).

[macuser_22]

@mcknight1dk - FYI - this is an OLD post from 2016 and no longer applies.  It has a 2019 date on it because when posts from the old Answer Exchange were migrated to this new forum all posts have the date of the migration (6/6/19) and not the actual date of the post.