You should clarify specifically with your employer/pension contacts, but I suspect what you are describing is a Defined Contribution HRA or a Retiree HRA. (My mother-in-law has one of these as a pension benefit from her prior employer).

HRAs and HSAs have specific interactions that must be coordinated to ensure you can be eligible to participate in both simultaneously. Absent coordination, you can enroll in a qualifying HDHP, but would be ineligible to make HSA contributions due to the HRA availability.

https://datapathadmin.com/hras-and-hsas-at-the-same-time/

Unless your "pension" HRA supports a suspend mode (see #4, in the link above), I don't see how you can become eligible for HSA contributions while the HRA is still funded.

You're correct. I'll edit my posting.

"The High Deductible is max deductible of 1,500 but max out of pocket of 3,000."

>Does the high deductible plan qualify for an HSA? It's $1400/$2800 for the deductible to qualify, but even with that not all plans do.

You have highlighted an important point... If the High Deductible plan has "only" $3000 max out-of-pocket then although it is within limits for a qualifying HDHP for HSA contribution purposes, it might warrant further investigation since the OOP is less than 1/2 the max limit allowable. There are other factors that could make it disqualifying such as office or prescription co-pays, for example.

​

https://www.uhc.com/broker-consultant/news-strategies/resources/2023-health-savings-account-and-high-deductible-health-plan-limits-announced

These IRS changes are effective on customers’ renewal dates beginning Jan. 1, 2023, or later:Minimum deductible$1,500 for self-only coverage ($100 increase from 2022)$3,000 for family coverage ($200 increase from 2022)$3,000 for embedded individual deductible ($100 increase from 2022)

Out-of-pocket maximum** $7,500 for self-only coverage ($450 increase from 2022) **$15,000 for family coverage ($900 increase from 2022)

HSA contribution limits$3,850 for self-only coverage$7,750 for family coverageIndividuals 55 and over may contribute an extra $1,000 to their HSA

If your employer's 401k plan offers a Mega Backdoor Roth option it seems to me you have misaligned priorities, particularly tax-wise.

I say this because you seem fixated on paying taxes to convert your spouse's $22k Traditional IRA to Roth IRA this year -and- to potentially triggering capital gains from the brokerage account to fund "only" $12k in Roth IRA, all the while you easily have twice that Roth space available to you in the unfunded After-Tax 401k bucket.

By all means, perform the reverse rollover of your Rollover IRA to Traditional 401k. No tax impact, good investment choices, and low fees, plus it opens you up for the Roth IRA.

But why not spread the spouse's tax IRA conversion over one or multiple years while you ramp up and ultimately max out your MBDR After-Tax 401k option that is currently unused? Unless you anticipate jumping into a much higher tax bracket in the next year or two, I don't see the benefits of doing all of this by the end of 2022, just to get an extra $6k into one of your Roth IRAs.