Scan Medical Insurance

not sure how much i should contribute to flex spending account?

this is my first time doing it and i need a lot of dental work done. right now i need root canal and crown on front tooth and bottom front tooth. i need wisdom teeth taken out. i dont want to conribute so much that it affects my bills or other emergency items(car breaks down). right now i have rent, car note, insurance, student loans, cell, cable, water, electric, etc. right now i have metlife insurance- they cover $1500 per calendar year. im thinking about contributing anywhere from $1000 to $2000. what do you think??

Public Comments

1. Talk to an account manager at your dentist office and let them work with your insurance company and have them come up with your total out-of-pocket costs, then you may want to factor in a couple of medical insurance co-pays for regular doctor visits and there is your Flex total. I only contributed $200 to mine last year and I'm at $3.44 left right now, so I'm increasing mine to $250 - but I don't have any major medical issues (that I know of), so I'm only planning for the normal wear-and-tear type treatments.
2. It sounds like you have a lot of dental work to do next year. Crowns are expensive, around $1000/each, and insurance usually only covers 50% of crowns. I would call the dentist's office and ask them what they thought the bill would be for all the procedures after insurance. Then, with that number, you can estimate what to put in for your 125 flex spending account. It sounds like you have at least $1500 of expenses after insurance, and possibly closer to $2500. The nice thing is, you can usually spread the payments into the plan over the whole year, but take out expenses as they occur, so, if you have your dental work done in January, you can get reimbursed for it in February, and be paying the money in for the rest of the year. For example, you say you are contributing $2,400/year to the flex account, and you get paid twice a month. Every paycheck they will take $100 from your check. And if you have $2400 of expenses in January, you can submit it and get your reimbursement check in February. You end up with a free loan from the plan, as well as the benefit of paying for your medical expenses with tax-free money. I hope that helps.
3. You need to contribute the amt you expect your out of pocket medical & dental expenses will be nxt year. Ask your dds what all this work you need will cost, ask your ins co what they cover on each of those procedures. The difference is your out of pocket expenses. Figure what you spent last year on dr. visit co-pays & prescrip. co-pays. Add that amt to your expenses. You can estimate costs for over the counter drugs & medical supplies but you will need to save those receipts to get reimbursed. If you can, sign up for the auto deposit (your copay $$ goes back into your chk acct. so you don't have to send copies of bills in. What matters is what ins DOESN'T cover. Thats what you want to pay with this FSA $$.