What now; HSA with no available HSA Health Plan?

[kite_rider]

Long time lurker here and should introduce myself on the 'Hi I am..' thread; but have a pressing issue that I need your help on in the mean time.

I ER'd back in the summer of 2013 and opened an HSA account at that time along with a HDHP that was HSA approved.

Since then there had been HSA compatible plans available under the ACA; and I've participated / contributed to my HSA every year since. But this year there are drastically fewer ACA plans available to Central Oregon residents and *NONE* of therm are listed as HSA compatible. This despite individual deductibles being sky high at over $7,000!

I took the strategy of tracking my eligible expenses while letting the account grow tax free. The account is over $15K now and I don't want to liquidate it in Jan - especially since there will probably be new legislation that encourages HSA's in the future. I don't plan to go without health insurance; so I will buy a super expensive high deductible ACA plan even though it's not HSA compatible.

So my question to the forum; What risks am I taking with this strategy? Should I attempt another HSA contribution in 2017 even though I don't have an HSA health plan?

I value your feedback!

[gauss]

You don't need a HDHP to maintain an existing HSA. You just cant make yearly contributions when you don't.

gauss

[kite_rider]

Thanks for the quick reply gauss. So if I maintain my HSA would I be able to claim expenses that were incurred during the periods that I did not have an HSA compatible plan?

[RunningBum]

Yes, the only requirement is that the expenses must be incurred after you've opened an HSA account.

[kite_rider]

Ah, well that settles it for me. Will hold onto the account and hope a new HSA compatible plan will be made available some time in the future.

Will probably post a separate topic about taking a chance on a 'short term' insurance policy rather than an ACA plan for next year. This would save my family some serious $$ even after the penalty and the short term policies have much lower deductibles in case we would actually have to use it. I do worry about the quality of these policies however...