3 Things 11-24-25

Thing One

The 2025-26 HSA Update (And What It Means For You) 

If you haven’t reviewed your health-savings strategy in a while, now’s a good time. Two major changes are coming up for Health Savings Accounts (HSAs): higher contribution limits and broader eligibility thanks to changes in how Bronze-level health plans qualify.

What’s an HSA and Why Is It So Good?

An HSA (Health Savings Account) is one of the most tax-efficient tools you can use. It lets you set aside money before taxes, grow that money tax-free, and withdraw it tax-free for qualified medical expenses.

That’s triple tax advantage — something you don’t get anywhere else.Plus, the balance rolls over every year, it’s yours forever, and after age 65 you can even use it like a traditional IRA for non-medical expenses.

Bottom line: an HSA is one of the smartest ways to save for both current and future healthcare costs.

1. Higher HSA Contribution Limits

The IRS is raising how much you can put into your HSA:

·       2025: $4,300 individual / $8,550 family

·       2026: $4,400 individual / $8,750 family

·       Catch-up (55+): still $1,000

More room to save tax-free = more long-term value.

2. Bronze Plans Will Qualify in 2026

Starting January 1, 2026, Marketplace Bronze (and Catastrophic) plans will officially be HSA-eligible. Historically, most Bronze plans didn’t meet IRS rules for HSAs — even though they had high deductibles.  Now they will.

That means lower premiums and HSA eligibility, giving more people access to tax-free savings. So if you like the idea of lower monthly premiums but still want the benefits of an HSA, 2026 opens the door. And with limits increasing, the HSA keeps getting more attractive.

HSAs were already one of the best financial tools available — and these rule changes make them even better. If you want help comparing plans or figuring out an HSA contribution strategy, just let us know.

Thing Two  

The Real Existential Crisis 

The following excerpt was taken from an article written by Andrew Rice in New York Magazine:

“Last winter, the federal government released the results of its semi-annual reading and math tests of fourth- and eighth-graders, assessments that are considered the most authoritative measure of the state of learning in American elementary and middle schools. In nearly every category, the scores had plunged to levels unseen for decades—or ever. On reading tests, 40 percent of fourth-graders and one-third of eighth-graders performed below “basic,” the lowest threshold. A separate assessment of 12th-graders conducted this past spring—the first since schools were shuttered by the COVID pandemic—yielded similarly crushing results. Many graduated from high school without the ability to decipher this sentence. How can I assume that? The test asked them to define the word decipher, and 24 percent got it wrong.

“You can’t believe how low ‘below basic’ is,” says Carol Jago, a former public-school teacher who has served on the board that oversees . . . the National Assessment of Educational Progress. “The things that those kids aren’t able to do are frightening.”

According to the NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) only 35% of American high school students in 2024 were proficient in reading and 22% in math, in which they ranked 28th out of 37 OECD countries.

All this has happened even though we know how critical education is to the success of children, families, communities, and societies. This is the real existential crisis (the one we can do something about anyway), and it is also the real oppression from which minorities suffer. And sadly, it is being inflicted upon them by the group that publicly claims it is championing their cause. Below basic scores are the result of the "soft bigotry of low expectations" George W. Bush warned us not to give in to almost 30 years ago. But the political ideology that insists on “leveling the playing field” and atoning for historic racism has caused low expectations and mediocrity to become imbedded in education policy to the detriment of a generation of children. In the process they've advocated against apparent solutions like charter schools and vouchers. It’s time for them and anybody who plays politics with this issue to stop and reflect on the long-term damage their support for depriving kids/parents of choice and keeping them in failing schools is having on individuals and society.