HEALTH SAVINGS ACCOUNT
CLA Health Benefits Program
For Members & Crew
In January 2020, CLA launched a health benefits program, namely, a Health Spending Account (HSA) program for our members and their crew. There are many advantages to a HSA for both the captain and his crew (if they so wish):
- Aside from the tax benefits (which are always a bonus), there is no deductible;
- It’s extremely flexible, allowing you, to use the funds for a variety of health needs; and
- if you’re already under a spouse’s health benefits plan, you can use these funds to ‘top up’ their plan.
Health spending accounts are quite popular for small to medium-size business owners (like yourself) and are a favourable plan for hundreds of thousands of Canadians. For more information, check out the short, introductory video which has been created to answer the most common questions about HSAs. For your convenience, a general information and FAQ printable page is provided below:
Frequently Asked Questions
It is an account where Captains can deposit money for their Crew Members that is a tax deduction to the Captain. When the Crew Member uses those funds for a health care related expense, they receive them tax free.
Over and above the tax savings that both the Captain and the Crew Members receive, they are very useful for covering the health care needs that any other traditional health benefits plan would cover. Health Spending Accounts just do it with a lot more flexibility.
Using a Health Spending Account can be a great way to attract and retain good Crew Members. It is cost effective for the Captain as well. There are no minimums required to set one up either, so you can create a plan that fits the needs of you and your Crew.
Yes. Family coverage for $5 per month or single coverage for $3 a month. You can choose that when you set up your Health Spending Account.
You can deposit annually, a lump sum for each of your Crew Members and then not worry about it. The money would stay in the account for them to use whenever they require the funds. Then on the anniversary of the plan, you can determine if you want to contribute again and if so, how much.
Yes. When you set up the plan, you can determine who is on the plan and how much they get. It could be that only the Captain is on the plan, or it could be everyone including the Crew. Your choice.
Yes. You can add life insurance and critical illness insurance to the plan with as little as one person, just the Captain on the plan. If you have yourself and two others, you can add Long Term Disability as well. The life and critical illness have a maximum amount that you can get without any medical evidence. The disability coverage has some medical underwriting involved. Individual quotes can be obtained upon request.
There is an online portal that each person enrolled on the Health Spending Account uses to enter their own claims
Once the money is in their account, it stays there until they use it. The Captain wouldn’t have access to it anymore and the Crew Member would still have their online portal that only they could see. It stays there until depleted entirely.
There is no cost to set up the account, but there is an administration fee to deposit funds into the Health Spending Account. 8% plus HST is subtracted from each deposit to the Health Spending Account. The normal fee is 10%, but the Coldwater Lobster Association has negotiated a reduced fee for all members. This is a one-time fee charged upon deposit into the account.
Yes, there is a $3.75 fee per claim. The good news is that you can save up your claims and do many together at once and only pay the $3.75 once. This is highly recommended to reduce overall costs.