Oops, Today Show: Guest makes a mistake when talking about Healthcare.

This morning I was watching NBC's Today. They had two guests on the Health and Medicine Segment who were talking about ways to reduce health care costs. I noticed one serious error the male guest Andrew Rubin made when talking about a Health Savings Account (HSA). He stated if you do not spend the money in an HSA you will lose it at the end of the year. That is totally untrue. You never lose the money in the HSA, it rolls over from year to year. You can even keep it if you don't have an HSA qualifying health plan anymore. The whole point of the HSA is to encourage someone to be a smart consumer and therefore help to better control health care costs. By not having unnecessary and sometimes expensive tests or procedures you reduce your costs and keep the account funded. The money in the HSA is intended to fund your care before you reach your deductible and maximum out of pocket with your insurance. It can also fund other day to day and special expenses. Putting money into an account that you will lose at the end of the year is not being a smart consumer. The guest was confusing a Flexible Spending Arrangement or Account (FSA) with an HSA. Any money left in an FSA you will lose at the end of the plan year. But an FSA is intended to pay for regular and expected health care and other expenses such as daycare. Be careful of anything you see on TV, especially any entertainment/news show.