What are HSA accounts?

Yesterday I had the pleasure of talking with my wife's aunt during my son's birthday party and asked her, "so you got any plans to retire soon? You keep talking about it, but when are you going to stop talking it and do something?" I absolutely adore her and she is a great aunt and supportive family member. We get along really well and so its easy to talk to her about things like this. She said to me that, "I could retire if it wasn't for that darn high cost of insurance. I've been thinking about asking my employer if I can work part time so I can keep my health insurance." I first asked her if she has looked at what the cost of COBRA would be for the first 1 1/2 years and she said it is through the roof. Then I asked her have you looked at a HSA account? Basically it is a high deductible health account that you can contribute pretax dollars to and the premiums are pretty low. So she said she'd check it out. It got me thinking too...I should investigate it more for me too. How much are the costs? What are some of the details behind it? On HSAInsider.com I found a lot of good information and it turns out the insurance premiums are extremely low for me with a reasonable $3000 deductible. I'd only pay about $60/month for just me and for my entire family it would only cost $194/month. Here are some more details I got from HSAInsider that may help you if you are thinking about retiring early, but feel the cost of insurance is the biggest hindrance.

"A Health Savings Account (HSA) is a new, portable, savings account that allows you to set aside money for health care tax-free. You must have high deductible health insurance to open an HSA. Different from other benefit products, an HSA rolls over from year to year (there is no “use it or lose it”), interest is paid, money can be invested in mutual funds, and it is owned by you, not your employer. Many liken an HSA to a “medical IRA”.
Considering the high costs of health care today, an HSA offers a wide range of benefits to consumers:
Affordable Health Insurance
You pay less each month for high-deductible health insurance

Triple Tax Advantages
Pre-tax contributions to your HSA, tax-exempt interest and investment gains on your HSA, and tax-free withdrawals from your HSA for qualified medical expenses

Unprecedented Control
You are now in control of how your healthcare dollars are used - save or spend, it's your choice

Portable
Your HSA is an account that you own and remains in place regardless of where you work or what insurance company you are insured by

Flexibility
Your HSA contributions can be used to pay for a wide range of eligible medical expenses not typically covered by low deductible health insurance or other healthcare accounts

Planning for the Future
HSA contributions can be directed toward long-term investment vehicles, such as mutual funds, to maximize future value of your HSA"

I know when I retire early I'm definitely going to leverage an HSA account!