Sounds like you have a health savings account. A lot of employers are going towards HSA's because the premiums are cheaper. I know my husbands work has a PPO plan that has a HSA attached. The premiums are cheaper due the the deductible being higher with what you save in premiums going towards the HSA. There is also a HMO option from his work. His work offers Blue Cross Blue Shield which we currently have. Next year we are going to go with my employees during open enrollment. We choose not to take my work's insurance for a few reasons but basically the coverage is identical and my work is United Health Care. I'm not fond of HSA accounts. We are only offered HSAs thats why we didn't take the coverage. Next year now that I understand them more and prefer the flexibility of not being under a HMO where you don't always get the best health care or even your own doctor I'm going with my work insurance. This is not a United Health care complaint its an insurance industry issue they are all leaning towards HSA and yes you would pay your portion of what you own on your sd's deductible out of the Debit card that is attached to the HSA.

That money needs to be divided between all of you make sure that BM knows that there is a certain amount for SD and if her requests go over than BM needs to come up with the money this is not an ATM - it is for true medical needs. End of story she does not get the card just because she asks and furthermore if she is only 8 have whatever bills she needs come to your house as well because if BM gets the number then you are in trouble.

Any expense she wants to charge to the card, she needs to show up with cash for when she picks up the card. If bm is supposed to be covering these expenses, she needs to be reimbursing for them.

Also, call the insurance company and see if bm is able to get and load her own card with her own money. You can't possibly be the first family in this situation with them.

Ah, what a nightmare. We have it worse with that stupid HSA...we put in money, they give us the card and then when we try to use it, 99% of places here don't take the card!!! So we have to submit all kinds of receipts and stuff and even then, because many receipts are in spanish, they won't take them! sigh We lost out on 250USD last year because of it...it is a nightmare.

The solution to this is bm putting the money onto the card, or reimbursing you for expenses. I know that is a pain, but there's always court if you need to collect.

solution is pay for your half of the expenses with the card. Have BM pay her half however she chooses. And Most chain pharmacies take these HSA debit cards. even walmart takes them. They can be used for bandaids tylenol anything that can be deemed health related so don't loose sight of the card. Some of them aren't clearly marked they are HSA. My boss used hers to buy non medical stuff when she had way too much on hers when she was paying out of pocket on her own debit card because she was using the wrong card.

Luckily, my skids are grown. DH & I aren't responsible for insuring them.

In our case its who ever takes SD to the doctor pays the co-pay and prescription cost if any. SO carries SD on his insurance and pays the premium every month. Before SO was paying for everything 100% and BM was running SD to the doctor and the ER a few times a month. For some BS reason one time it was a trip to the ER for a bug bite. To top it off she had already taken her to the doctor earlier in the day for said bug bite. It was out of control. Now that she has to pay if she takes her she hasn't taken her once!! Go figure :O So now SD only goes to the doctor if she is sick or for her yearly check up.