Can You Buy Ibuprofen With a Health Savings Account?

Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) offer a valuable way for individuals to manage their healthcare costs with significant tax advantages. These accounts are designed to help people save and pay for qualified medical expenses on a tax-free basis.

Understanding Health Savings Accounts (HSAs)

An HSA is a savings account specifically for healthcare expenses, available to individuals enrolled in a high-deductible health plan (HDHP). This type of health plan typically has lower monthly premiums but higher deductibles before insurance coverage begins. Contributions to an HSA are tax-deductible, reducing your taxable income in the year they are made.

Funds within an HSA grow tax-free, and withdrawals used for eligible medical expenses are also tax-free. This triple tax advantage makes HSAs a valuable tool for healthcare savings. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) sets annual contribution limits.

Eligible Medical Expenses

The IRS provides guidelines on what constitutes an “eligible medical expense” for HSA purposes. Generally, these are costs for the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease, or for affecting any structure or function of the body. This broad definition covers a wide range of services and products.

Typical eligible expenses include fees for doctor visits, prescription medications, hospital stays, and certain dental and vision care services. IRS Publication 502 provides an extensive list of these qualifying expenses. Understanding these guidelines is important for ensuring that HSA funds are used appropriately and remain tax-free.

Over-the-Counter Medications and HSAs

Before 2020, over-the-counter (OTC) medications required a doctor’s prescription to be eligible for HSA reimbursement. However, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, enacted on March 27, 2020, changed this rule by repealing the prescription requirement for OTC drugs and medicines.

This means that many common OTC medications, including ibuprofen, can now be purchased with HSA funds without needing a prescription. This change retroactively applied to purchases made on or after January 1, 2020, and has no expiration date. Ibuprofen, a widely used pain reliever, is an eligible expense for HSA reimbursement.

Documentation and Record Keeping

Maintaining records is important for all HSA users. The IRS requires individuals to keep documentation sufficient to prove that all HSA distributions were used for qualified medical expenses. This includes receipts for all purchases, even for items like ibuprofen.

These records are necessary in case of an IRS audit, demonstrating that the expenses were not reimbursed from another source or claimed as an itemized deduction. While you do not submit these records with your tax return, retaining them for several years, typically at least three years, is a standard practice for tax purposes.