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June 4, 2019
Question

Can I use my HSA money to purchase sperm from a sperm bank?

  • June 4, 2019
  • 1 reply
  • 0 views
For fertility treatments

1 reply

Employee
June 4, 2019

That depends. 

Expenses are deductible (and therefore eligible for HSA since the rules are the same) when they are to treat, prevent or mitigate a disease or affect the natural function of the body, and the expense is for you, a spouse, or a dependent.

So this now gets into areas of law that are controversial.

A heterosexual married couple who are infertile can use HSA money for fertility treatments.

A gay male couple can use HSA money for a sperm bank if one of the partners is infertile and they need the sperm for a surrogacy procedure, but they can't use HSA money for other surrogacy or fertility expenses (like IVF or the surrogate mother) since being two males is not a "disease" and two males having children is not a natural function of the body. (Recent Supreme Court ruling.)

Following that logic, a lesbian couple, or a single female seeking to purchase sperm for IVF, IUF, or surrogacy, could not use HSA money for the sperm, since the lack of a male partner is not a disease.

(This is not necessarily fair, but it appears to be the state of the tax law at this time.  Any changes would have to come from Congress.)

June 19, 2019

What about for people undergoing hormone replacement therapy which causes them to become infertile?  Can we use FSA for storage?