Choosing the Right HSA option

Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), created on December 2003, is designed to help individuals save for future qualified medical and retiree health expenses on a tax-free basis. With both of our employers offering HSA, we had to work out the math to figure out which option to go with. The details of the plan are as follows:

Employer 1
Deductible (employee/employee+1/employee +2): 1200/2400/3000
Max out of Pocket expense (90% covered after deductable): 2000/4000/5000
Employer contribution (employee/employee+1/employee +2): 700/1400/1800
Immunization and preventative exams are 100% covered

Employer 2
Deductible (employee/family): 1500/3000
Max out of Pocket expense (100% covered after deductable): 1500/3000
Employer contribution: Nil
Immunization and preventative exams are 100% covered

Maximum HSA Contribution for Year 2008: $2900 for individual, $5800 for families

We didn’t spend much on health expense, so using that as the guideline the min expense is kept at 500 and max as the maximum out of pocket expense.

Option one (going with employer 1 alone). The employer 2 does not give any money for not using their health plan, so the savings is basically the amount you save from tax and the contribution from employer 1.
Tax deductible savings = 4400 * .28 = 1232
Employer contribution = 1400
Min spending = 500
Max spending = 4000.
Total savings = 2132 or -1368

Option two (going with employer 2 alone). The employer 1 gives about 36o for a year for not using their health plan, that can be considered as employer contribution.
Tax deductible = 5800 * .28 = 1624
Employer contribution = 360
Min spending = 500
Max spending = 3000
Total savings = 1484 or -1016

Option three(going with employer 1 and employer 2)
Tax deductible = 5100 * .28 = 1428
Employer contribution = 700
Min spending = 500
Max spending = 3500
Total savings = 1628 or -1372

So looks like taking option one is better because of the employer contribution. However if we look at the max expense then option two looks better because the employer's deductible.