Is my family better off with a PPO or an HSA?

Q: I have a family of four currently on a 100-percent funded PPO with a deductible of $1500. I have the option to select a PPO versus an HSA-Health Savings Account. The HSA has a Family Deductible of $10,000, but fully funds wellness related stuff. If we go with the HSA, the employer will contribute the difference between the PPO cost and the HSA insurance cost to the HSA. So for a family of four that is close to $400 a month.

Can you suggest what sort of annalysis I should do to figure out where to go? I feel that the Employer is pumping the HSA because it is better for them; the pediatrician thinks it might be too risky until my kids are two years old; what do you suggest?

A: Well, I'm a big fan of HSAs, because if you don't use the money, it grows for future use on medical expenses. So what you don't spend, you keep. Now regarding the kids, I'm not sure what difference that really makes. If the cost difference between the two plans is covered by your employer, and if any potential expenses over the deductible are 100 percent covered, then I don't see what you have to lose!

Terry Savage is a registered investment advisor and the author of the newly published The Savage Number: How Much Money Do You Need To Retire? (256 pages, Wiley, $24.95).