How Much Should You Contribute to Your HSA During Open Enrollment 2027?

Open enrollment comes with a lot of decisions. If you're enrolling in an HSA-eligible health plan for 2027, one of them may be deciding how much money you want to contribute to your Health Savings Account (HSA).

During open enrollment, you’ll also need to decide what your HSA election will be for the year. Your HSA contribution election determines how much of your paycheck you want directed into your HSA throughout the year. Choosing the right amount requires looking at your expected healthcare expenses, employer contributions, health plan costs, and your regular household budget.

Here's how to work out how much you should contribute to your HSA during open enrollment.

There's no single HSA contribution amount that works for everyone. Someone expecting several medical expenses in 2027 may want to contribute differently from someone who rarely uses healthcare benefits and wants to build their HSA balance over time.

Open enrollment is also when you're making decisions regarding which HSA-eligible health plan you should opt for and setting your payroll contribution election for the upcoming year.

Your contributions can be split into two categories: your election which is the amount you've chosen to contribute through payroll and your personal HSA contributions which are the amounts that are deposited into the account from your own personal bank account throughout the year.

When deciding how much to put in your HSA during open enrollment, you need to consider:

• Your expected qualified healthcare expenses for 2027.
• Any HSA contributions your employer will make.
• The deductible and out-of-pocket maximum for your 2027 health plan.
• Whether you plan to spend your HSA funds now or save some for future healthcare costs.
• How much you can comfortably contribute without putting unnecessary pressure on your monthly budget.

You don't necessarily need to contribute the maximum but the goal is to choose an amount that makes sense for your healthcare needs and finances. You can also check out our contribution guide if you’d like to learn more about how to set your contribution amount for the year.

The IRS sets annual limits on how much can be contributed to an HSA.

For 2027, the HSA contribution limits are:

• Self-only coverage: $4,500
• Family coverage: $9,000
• Additional catch-up contribution for people age 55 or older: $1,000

These limits include both employee and employer contributions so if your employer contributes $1,000 toward your HSA, for example, that $1,000 counts toward your annual limit and leaves you with $3500 if you’ve opted for self-coverage.

The limit also applies across all your HSAs. If you’re not aware, opening multiple accounts doesn't give you a separate contribution limit for each one so you need to carefully track contributions across your HSA accounts to ensure that you don’t exceed the IRS limit.

Your IRS limit is also different from your HSA contribution election during open enrollment. The IRS limit tells you the maximum you're allowed to contribute to your HSA for the year across all your HSA accounts while your election determines how much you personally choose to contribute through payroll.

A good starting point for your HSA contribution during open enrollment is estimating how much you expect to spend on qualified health expenses in 2027.

Consider predictable expenses such as prescriptions, appointments, dental work, vision care, and other qualified medical expenses.

You’ll also want to look beyond traditional healthcare costs at health-related purchases you're already planning for 2027. For example, your gym membership, supplement stack, fitness equipment, or supportive footwear may qualify for HSA/FSA spending through Truemed if an independent licensed clinician determines they're medically necessary for your specific health condition. Factoring these expenses into your estimate can give you a more complete picture of how much you may actually use from your HSA during the year.

You may also want to look at your health plan's deductible and out-of-pocket maximum to understand what you could potentially pay if you have a more expensive healthcare year.

Next, subtract any employer HSA contribution from your target.

For example, if you want $3,500 added to your HSA during 2027 and your employer contributes $750, your employee contribution target would be $2,750.

You can contribute more than your expected annual healthcare costs if your budget allows but keep in mind that you still need to remain within the IRS limits.

Once you've chosen an annual contribution amount, you can convert it into a payroll election.

For example, let’s say your employer is willing to contribute $1000 for 2027. This means you have $3500 left that you can contribute yourself. Now suppose you only want to contribute $2600 for the year.

Here’s how you calculate your payroll election:

Annual employee HSA contribution ÷ number of paychecks = contribution per paycheck

So if you're paid every two weeks, giving you 26 paychecks during the year that would be $2,600 ÷ 26 = $100 per paycheck

To make sure you calculate your payroll contribution correctly, check how frequently you're paid before calculating your election, particularly if you're paid weekly or biweekly.

Open enrollment only rolls around once a year but you might decide to increase your contribution after an unexpected medical expense, reduce it because your household budget has changed, or adjust it after receiving a new employer contribution.

Thankfully your open enrollment election doesn't necessarily lock you into the same contribution for the entire year.

The IRS doesn’t restrict how often you can change your contributions during the year so in theory you could legally change your contribution every month if you wanted to. The major roadblock would be your employer. Most employers have some restrictions on when you’re allowed to change your contributions so you’ll need to check with your HR to see what your company rules are.

Whatever you choose though, your total eligible contributions still need to remain within the IRS annual limit.

Life doesn’t always go according to plan and unexpected changes in your circumstances may cause your eligibility to change.

This could be if you start or end HSA-eligible coverage, switch employers, move between self-only and family coverage, or join a spouse's health plan.

If your HSA eligibility changes during 2027, you’ll need to reassess how much you're allowed to contribute rather than continuing with your original election automatically.

For example, if we stick to the $2600 annual contribution but let’s say you only become eligible in June, you’ll need to contribute the full $2600 over roughly 15 paychecks which would work out to about $173 per paycheck.

If you switch to family coverage and join your spouse's High-Deductible Health Plan (HDHP) and you’d like to contribute the max amount you’d need to deduct your employer contribution, your spouse's employer contribution, and decide how you would split the remaining annual limit between the two of you.

And finally, if you switch to your spouse's health plan which is not eligible for HSA or you cancel your own HDHP, then you would need to stop your contributions entirely.

It's possible to accidentally exceed your HSA contribution limit, particularly when your circumstances change during the year.

Contributing too much can happen if you forget to include employer contributions, contribute to multiple HSAs, change your eligibility, or simply calculate your contributions incorrectly.

Ideally you want to keep tabs on your contributions because excess HSA contributions can have tax consequences if they aren't corrected. If you contribute too much, you won’t be able to claim a tax deduction for the excess, you’ll need to report the excess as taxable income, and you’ll need to pay a 6% excise tax.

You can avoid paying the 6% tax by withdrawing the excess before filing season or you can leave it in your account to offset your next year’s contributions. Unfortunately you’ll still have to pay the 6% tax for the year. If you have over-contributed you can check out our guide on what to do if you’ve over-contributed.

One of the easiest mistakes is simply repeating last year's contribution without checking whether anything has changed.

Here are some common mistakes people make when setting a HSA contribution open enrollment amount:

• Forgetting to include employer contributions when calculating your annual total.
• Confusing your health plan deductible with the IRS HSA contribution limit.
• Failing to adjust your contribution after moving between self-only and family coverage.
• Assuming your contribution election can't be changed after open enrollment.
• Choosing an amount that doesn't fit your household budget or expected healthcare expenses.
• Reusing last year's election without reviewing your new health plan.

A few minutes spent reviewing your numbers during open enrollment can help you choose a more practical contribution for the year ahead.

Your HSA funds can be used tax-free for a wide range of qualified medical expenses, including prescriptions, dental care, vision expenses, and many eligible over-the-counter healthcare products.

What many people don’t know is that thousands of preventive health interventions, like your gym membership, supplement stack, or red light therapy tools, may be HSA/FSA eligible for qualified customers when supported by appropriate documentation connecting the product to the treatment or prevention of a documented medical or health condition. That documentation is often a Letter of Medical Necessity from a licensed clinician that connects your intended purchase to a specific health need.

Through Truemed*, qualified customers can access thousands of potentially eligible health interventions like a Waver Vibration Plate from Lifepro, a Vitamin D supplement from Thorne, or even a Pro300 Red Light Therapy Panel from Hooga.

If you’re not sure what other health products you can buy with your HSA, check out our marketplace or check out our ultimate list of HSA/FSA eligible expenses.

*Truemed is for qualified customers. HSA/FSA tax savings vary. Learn more at truemed.com/disclosures.