I went ahead and switched my insurance over to the High Deductible plan, which will lower my premiums by about $100. It will also mean that my deductible jumps from $500 to $1200 but it also means that I now qualify for a High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP) which means I can now get a Health Savings Account (HSA).

My insurance company does not allow you to have a FSA and the HSA at the same time so I will have to get rid of my FSA once the new plan kicks in and everything gets rolling. This change also means that I will have to tweak the budget YET again because I am not sure how the lower deductible and other deductions will affect my net income. I do plan on investing the difference between my old premium and the new lower premium into my HSA so that I do not get too off track with my cash flows.

My employer does not offer the HSA through its staff so I had to go to Chase to get my HSA set up. The process on the website was easy since I already have accounts with Chase. I simply clicked on the banking options and chose Health Savings Account and proceeded to enter my information. I got my account set up in about five minutes and made the initial deposit that they require to open the account.

I will need to fund my account via payroll deductions and my contributions will be taken out pre-tax which is even better for me. (more on THAT later).