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MSAs give you greater control over your medical care than managed care options and free you from many of the restrictions inherent in indemnity insurance plans. Here's how:
 You get more care for your money with an MSA.
You and your doctor are free to choose courses of therapy based on clinical value, rather than whether they will be covered by your medical insurance.
You have access to many therapies not traditionally covered by other types of insurance, including long-term care, eye care and prescription drugs.
You do not have to fear losing your coverage if you switch jobs because an MSA can easily be moved from employer to employer, just like a 401K plan. Also, accumulated funds in your MSA can be used to help you purchase interim COBRA insurance when you are between jobs.
Last, because there are no requirements for spending your MSA funds in a certain period of time, you can use your MSA to save funds for future medical or long-term care needs.
Who Qualifies For MSAs?
Unfortunately, when Congress set up the test program for MSAs, it allowed only certain groups of people to form them. These include:
the one person group (an odd turn of phrase that refers to individuals who are self-employed, one-person corporations, or who report income on a 1099 basis or who file schedule C tax returns; and
employees of small corporations (2-50 employees).
This means that individuals who are either unemployed (as in retired or disabled) and those who are employed by large corporations (who presumably don't need MSAs because their employers can set up 401K plans to accomplish almost the same result) cannot take advantage of MSAs.
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