Right - chances are the plan you can get with a lower-deductible plan is a regular flex spending account (use-or-lose).
As it turns out, the minimum high-deductible is indeed 1300 / 2600 for next year, though most are quite a bit higher than that.
…my understanding was that the limit was on the employees-side Only (the only answer I ever got when I pressed, and I pressed pretty d-mn hard, was “but why would the employer ever do that”.
In my experience, when HR answers questions with questions, you’ve nailed 'em dead-to-rights. So, could you please double-check that?
Not that the perfectly healthy Jennifer Lawrence is in any kind of rush; its just that I don’t want to be the one to rook her out of her 5 million. 
How about an IRS publication:
The amount you or any other person can contribute to your HSA depends on the type of HDHP coverage you have, your age, the date you become an eligible individual, and the date you cease to be an eligible individual. For 2013, if you have self-only HDHP coverage, you can contribute up to $3,250. If you have family HDHP coverage, you can contribute up to $6,450.
I am a Flex Plan administrator, including Health FSAs, and I just want to clarify a few things.
First, as was well pointed out by dracoi upthread, if you “lose” money in a Health FSA, it is still offset by the tax savings you realized. You’d literally have to leave more than a third of the money in your account to lose more than someone who doesn’t participate at all – and this was BEFORE the new rollover option. Using dracoi’s example, if you elected $1,000 for your annual Health FSA election, with the new rollover option of up to $500, you’d have to leave $833 in your account before you lost more than someone who doesn’t participate at all. If you calculate your annual out-of-pocket expenses that poorly, then I agree – a Health FSA is not for you.
Second, it’s true that some over-the-counter (OTC) items went away several years ago. However, many are still allowed, some with a doctor’s prescription (which is then assigned an Rx number through your pharmacy), and many without. Virtually anything related to treatment of a particular medical condition is still allowed, such as first aid kits, blood pressure monitors, bandages, vision care products, diabetes products, etc. The list is still quite extensive, though individual companies may choose to eliminate some things the IRS allows. As always, check with your Administrator to find out if something is allowed, and under what restrictions if any.
Third, even if you participate in an HSA, you may still be permitted to additionally participate in a Limited Purpose Health FSA. A Limited Purpose Health FSA allows you to run vision and dental expenses only through the Health FSA. For savvy folks, this is a good way to maximize tax savings – because vision and dental costs are often foreseeable and high-dollar expenses. Example: You are planning to have a dental implant, and cost for same is $3,000.00. You can use your Health FSA to fund $2,550.00 (the annual allowable maximum just went up to that amount a couple of weeks ago), realizing a tax savings of at least $765.00. Your HSA funds would thereby be preserved for other uses.
Finally, I would point out that HSAs are a great deal so long as you remain with your company, which pays for the administrative costs. When you take your HSA with you when you leave employment, YOU are responsible for the administrative costs. Those costs are often high enough to offset any tax savings you may have realized by having the account in the first place.
Just some things to consider when deciding how best to use your out-of-pocket health care dollars.
Aspenglow, excellent information!
I’d actually forgotten to mention the limited-purpose FSA, which my husband’s company offers (and mine does not; another reason to stick with his company’s coverage). We may be ordering eyeglasses on 12/31 this year 
In our case the admin costs (3.95 a month or thereabouts) are indeed paid by his company - Wells Fargo debits the account for that, then there’s an immediate credit. Once it’s over 5,000 dollars there’s no fee as I understand it - another reason to maintain that minimum if we can bite the bullet and pay out of pocket as much as possible.
I had started a thread a while back about one big drawback of HDHP / HSA: if you have a job change mid-year, you might not have met your deductible… then all of a sudden you have to meet ANOTHER deductible which is apparently not prorated: 6K deductible, you start in December, you’d think the deductible should be only 500 dollars but you’ve got to shell out the full 6K before you get any help.
Just shop around. There are plenty of no-fee HSAs out there, though you sometimes have to meet certain requirements, like also having a checking account at the same bank.
That was the stumbling block, and yes we took it to the IRS publication then too.
Remember, and quoting from that same IRS publication:
The IRS publication then immediately jumps to the next clause which states:
Q: Does “Any Other Person” specifically include the employer? (…because I honestly don’t think it does. Even if it was written to loosely almost-imply that it should, I still see a LOT of weasel-word and loop-hole room there.)
Quick, somebody tell Jennifer not to shake that hand yet! :rolleyes: 
How about the law itself then:
and:
(my bolding)
So the way I read this is that any amount your employer puts in your HSA counts against the limit for tax purposes. If they put in more money to put it over the limit, that amount is no longer “employer-provided coverage for medical expenses” and becomes taxable.
I really like my CDHP+HSA plan, which I’ve been doing for about 3 years now. The cost structure was a no brainer, since the reduced premium for the insurance compared to the PPO plan, plus the $1100 my employer puts in the HSA (all at once in January, woohoo!), exceeds the $3000 family deductible. Coinsurance after the deductible is met is 15%, so most simple doctor appointments don’t end up costing more than the copays we had under the old plan ($25-$50). Max out-of-pocket in $9000, including the deductible, but we’d have to incur $43K in medical bills to hit that. Preventative care is 100% covered without deductible. So, for example, my 50-year exhaust system check a couple of months ago cost me nothing out of pocket. Nor do my daily hypertension and cholesterol meds cost me anything.
As far as the disadvantage of not having the money in the HSA early in the year, keep in mind that many doctors and hospitals will allow you to pay a large bill over time with no finance charges or fees if you just call and work out a payment plan. I had cataract surgery last year and did not have money in my HSA to cover my initial out-of-pocket. I told them I needed to pay with my HSA, and would have $200/month available to pay. They were fine with that. Later, I won an appeal with insurance company and they ended up paying a larger share, so I only had to make a couple of payments before the bill was closed out.
Back to the OP, the one thing I don’t care for about my HSA is the web access. They show transactions in a screwy way, and show them as non-qualified unless I explicitly edit them to say they are (marking them as medical/dental/mental health/prescription, and which family member they go with). While on the editing screen, they don’t show the payee (which usually makes it obvious what the expense was), so there’s a lot of flipping back and forth. Mine is an Aetna plan managed by Chase. No idea if other companies have better online tools. But, I doubt any of them will categorize the expenses for you–you’ve got to go in and fix everything manually.