Medical Savings stupidity

Omaha and I filled out our first reimbursement request from my Medical Savings Account. MSAs are a great way of dealing with extra health care issues; they come out of the paycheck pre-tax and any costs not covered by insurance or other means can be paid for out of the MSA. So it's mostly a nice bit of a tax relief for working families with known medical expenses. We're using it for medications mostly.

There's an additional flexible spending account for dependent care. If you have an incapacitated parent and need in-house service, or have a child who needs daycare, the Dependent Care Account can be used to cover those costs, again without those monies impacting one's taxes.

Here's the stupid part: if you put your child in daycare, she's covered. You can use the DCA. If you put your child in preschool, where she's actually receiving an education and being taught by certified teachers, she's not covered. Daycare is regarded as a necessity-- those kids have to be warehoused somewhere while the parents slave away at their employment. Schooling, on the other hand, is an unnecessary option. "How dare you try and give your child an early education. What are you, elitist?"

Yes, actually, I am.