Health savings account and the Patriot Act

[shane77m]

Thought I would share this. I am setting up my health savings account now that the Affordable Care Act has screwed up my employer insurance plan. Since I now have a very high deductible our plan qualifies for the account. One of the things that is asked on the site is this:




PER THE USA PATRIOT ACT:
To help the government fight the funding of terrorism and money laundering activities, federal law requires all financial institutions to obtain, verify and record information that identifies each person who opens an account. When you open the account, we will ask for your name, street address, date of birth and other information that will allow us to identify you. We may also ask for your driver’s license or other identifying documents.


I don't remember ever seeing anything about the Patriot Act on any bank accounts that I have opened. "Patriot Act" LOL

[ronpaulfollower999]

I've seen banks cite the Patriot Act before on new accounts I've opened.

[jbauer]

We've been needing to collect that info for years. You must not have opened an account for anything for a long time.

[tangent4ronpaul]

My credit union has signs saying that and has for several years.

I'd wanted to open a health savings account for a while. My CC doesn't offer them, but I qualify for another that does. At the same time I thought Obamacare outlawed them, or will. What's the story on HSA's? (+ a high deductible catastrophic plan). You get to keep your money, it earns interest, I think you can use it as collateral on loans, it's not taxed and you can leave any money left to whomever you like when you die. What's not to like.

But again, I thought Obamacare made them illegal. What's the deal?

-t

[shane77m]

My credit union has signs saying that and has for several years.

I'd wanted to open a health savings account for a while. My CC doesn't offer them, but I qualify for another that does. At the same time I thought Obamacare outlawed them, or will. What's the story on HSA's? (+ a high deductible catastrophic plan). You get to keep your money, it earns interest, I think you can use it as collateral on loans, it's not taxed and you can leave any money left to whomever you like when you die. What's not to like.

But again, I thought Obamacare made them illegal. What's the deal?

-t

My deductible went up to $4000 on the new plan my employer is switching to. From what I gather it has to be a high deductible plan to qualify for an HSA. I am not sure about all of the details about it. I am going to read more about it later. I know you can keep your money unlike a FSA. The only thing that has me going to set one up is that my employer is going to kick in $500 when I open it and then contribute another $500 throughout the year for a total of a grand. I will look into O-Care and their legality. I haven't heard anything about that.

[tangent4ronpaul]

Think it has something to do with the socialized medicine/redistribution of wealth parts. Like it's hard to FORCE a 60yo male to maintain maternity coverage under a HSA.

-t

[eduardo89]

I've never opened an account in the US, but even abroad we get the Patriot Act personal info disclaimers when we open bank accounts.