HSA payroll deductions are pre-FICA (in addition to medical, dental, and vision insurance premiums). But, the annual caps are pretty low, and employer contributions are a rarity. They aren't a panacea; they are mostly handing the problem back to workers (just like retirement).

So off you stick too much on, it’s gone. If these could roll over, it might work for a few people. But that’s what insurance was supposed to be before it turned into a money grab

HSA balances aren't lost at the end of the year, unlike FSA balances.

The only ones that truly benefit from them are the companies that offer them.

If you have an existing HSA at the time you are enrolled in Medicare, that is okay, but you cannot have more money deposited in it.

They created this problem and seek a free way to fix it, but that doesn't exist.

The headline “Why health savings accounts aren’t the fix Republicans hope for” ignores the obvious reality that their motives are consistently designed to help Wall Street, permit further corruption, and fraud, and do nothing to address problems of poor people. If they hand out money to put into the HSA’s, it will pass through private hands, be kept in accounts that earn money for someone else no doubt, and get forgotten by a percentage of people who don’t know how to log in or otherwise never touch it.