Medicare and HSA

• If you have an HSA and you will soon be eligible for Medicare, it is important to plan ahead and understand how enrolling in Medicare will affect your HSA.
• You cannot continue to contribute to an HSA once you have Medicare.
• If you retire post 65 (post Medicare age), when you enroll in Medicare at retirement, your Medicare effective date will be retroactive by six months. *** You should stop all HSA contributions up to six months prior to retirement if you are Medicare age + six months (age 65 ½)
• If you do not stop contributing the six months before you apply for Social Security, you may have a tax penalty. The penalty is because you were not supposed to put money into your HSA while you had Medicare.