Is a 9 month temporary health plan with $5,000 per cause deductible an HDHP?

[pen1st]

I had temporary health insurance with United HealthCare for 6 months (March -Sept 2017), and I finished out the year with a 3 months temporary plan (Oct -Dec 2017). I was trying to stay covered until open enrollment. My deductible on both plans was $5,000.00 per cause which resulted in a lot of out of pocket expenses because I see a lot of doctors for health conditions and I also ended up having surgery in 2017. Would this be a HDHP even though it was a 9 month temporary plan? If so, how much of it would I list in TurboTax?

[BMcCalpin · Accepted solution]

There are more requirements than the amount of the deductible to make a plan an HDHP. Please review pages 3 and 4 in IRS Publication 969 at https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p969.pdf

I suspect that a deductible of $5,000 per cause instead of per year would probably disqualify the plan.

If necessary, you could call United HealthCare and ask them if these plans satisfy the IRS requirements to be an HDHP - they should know.

Second, I do not see any reference to an HSA? Did you have one? All the tax benefit to an HDHP is through the HSA.

As it is, you can probably claim these insurance premiums on Schedule A (Federal->Deductions & Credits->Medical->Medical expenses) along with the other unreimbursed medical expenses that you had.

[Edited 3/11/2020 3:10 pm CDT - made year neutral]