5. Do I have an HSA qualified health insurance plan?

The quickest way to find out if your health insurance plan is HSA qualified is to ask your health insurance company. If they say yes, then you know your health plan qualifies you to open an HSA.
Or, if your insurer offers both the insurance and the HSA account for the health insurance policy you have, then the policy is clearly HSA qualified.
For those whose employer provides your health insurance, ask your employer. If they do not know, they should ask the insurer on behalf of the employees.
Some employees have noted that their insurer will not tell them if their policy is HSA qualified or not. In that case, I recommend voting with your checkbook, and get a new insurance policy with a company that will tell whether their insurance policy is HSA qualified. In all seriousness, find a new insurer.
If, for whatever reason, you do not want to leave your insurer, here some general guidelines in the form of several questions you need to answer, to find out if your health insurance plan is an HSA qualified plan:

For family health insurance plans:

Is the annual deductible between $2,000 and $10,000? If the answer is yes, you are OK, so far. If the answer is no (either the deductible is less than $2,000 or more than $10,000) then you do not have an HSA qualified plan.
Does your family insurance plan have a comprehensive deductible? For example, if one person spends $1,000, and the other $800, and a third person has expenses of $1,200, each expenditure counts toward the $3,000 deductible, and your deductible is met when all expenditures exceed the deductible? If you answered yes, then your plan qualifies.

If, on the other hand, your family plan has a deductible that fits in the HSA compatible deductible range, but allows for individual family members to be covered by the insurance if their expenditures reach a certain dollar amount below the overall deductible, then no, your plan does not qualify. For example, if your family deductible is $3,000, but if a family member incurs expenses that exceed $1,500 then that family member's future expenses are covered by the health insurance, then no, you do not have a HSA qualified plan.
You could have another kind of plan where the deductible for the entire family is $4,000, but the insurance starts to pay benefits for each family member at $2,250. This meets the minimum family deductible (of $2,000) for an HSA qualified deductible. So this plan qualifies -- but -- and this is a big but -- you can only contribute $2,250 to the HSA for the entire family. So, you would be better off, getting a health insurance plan with on deductible -- the higher the better -- so you could put that amount into your HSA.

Does your maximum out-of-pocket amount per year for your family plan exceed $10,000? If yes, you do not have a HSA qualified health insurance plan.

For health insurance plans for singles:
Is your annual deductible more than $1,000 and less than $5,000? If yes, then you are OK so far, in terms of having a HSA qualified plan.
Does your maximum out-of-pocket expenditure for your single insurance plan exceed $5,000? If so, it does not qualify as a HSA qualified health insurance plan.

For both family and single health insurance plans:
Do you pay co-pays before you reach the deductible? If yes, then you do not have a HSA qualified plan, unless the co-pay is for prescription drugs. In that case, your health insurance will qualify for an HSA until 1/1/2006 because the U.S. Treasury has issued special transition rules for such plans. However, if you pay co-pays for prescription drugs, or are otherwise insured below your deductible for prescription drugs, the drug coverage you have must be a separate plan or a rider to your plan. You can go to the U.S. Treasury section of this web site (button on the left side of the Home Page) to read the Media Release about this transition rule, or the actual HSA transition rule issued by Treasury.  If your plan meets all the requirements listed above, it is an HSA compatible plan.
Remember, the maximum HSA deposit for a family cannot exceed the deductible, or in the case of a deductible higher than $5,150, the HSA deposit cannot exceed $5,150 in 2004.

For single individuals, your maximum HSA deposit cannot exceed your deductible, and in cases of a deductible higher than $2,600, your HSA deposit cannot exceed $2,600 in 2004