Just found out that the traditional PPO plan will not be offered after this year; my employer will only offer two kinds of high deductible, HSA plans. It's not a huge bother to me because a family PPO is unaffordable at my current employer but having gone to the ER 3 times in 3 years, I am getting tired of the HSA style plan and wish I had more options.
What kinds of plans are offered at your workplace?
72 votes
coconut / 8430 posts
We no longer have a PPO either. Even though we had a year of very high health expenses last year I believe that HSA is the way to go for us because we are able to pay less in premiums and we are able to put away money in our HSA and grow it tax free.
grapefruit / 4649 posts
I am not sure what our "other" plan is but we have two choices, a high deductible HSA plan and another plan that is similar to our old PPO style but truly awful, I guess it may still technically be a PPO but our deductible within it is still relatively high but more is covered than with an HSA high deductible plan. Like my birth center birth was $7500 with our PPO we paid $250, under the high deductible we'd pay the whole thing and under the other plan it's $4500. It's terrible and I really miss our old plan!
persimmon / 1188 posts
We have a PPO, high deductible and coinsurance plan. The company contributes more than half the deductible to an HSA if you choose the high deductible plan. That is what I have for now, I think it makes sense and I like having the savings account for now and the future.
honeydew / 7504 posts
We have 3 choices - a PPO that is capitated to the health system for whom I work, a PPO that lets us go to any provider (higher copays for outside of our health system), and a high deductible with HSA plan. I opted for the PPO that is capitated. All of our providers are part of my health system, so it works for us. The first year I worked here, I had the other PPO because D was still seeing a cardiologist in Philly. After he had his surgery, we switched him to a cardiologist here within my health system and changed my insurance. The capitated PPO is slightly less expensive (premium-wise) than the "normal" one. It works well for us, though I'm considering the HSA for the future.
eggplant / 11716 posts
We have several choices--everything from PPOs to HMOs and high deductible plans with HSAs. I have several small but expensive health issues and it seems my kids are sick constantly, so we are all on my benefits and we chose a PPO.
My husband works for a large, global company....but for some reason, his family health insurance plans are super expensive. So we are all on my plan, which is really great. I'm a state employee. I pay about $630/month for all 4 of us, but the coverage is really good. I paid only $10 for each of my childbirths, my prescription coverage is good, etc.
clementine / 911 posts
We have several PPO options and an HMO option to choose from. I've selected one of the mid-tier PPO plans. I'm lucky to work for an employer with great benefits.
pear / 1586 posts
We have four plans to choose from:
- an HMO with a small deductible & HSA
- a no-deductible HMO with a more restricted network (= lower premium)
- a no-deductible HMO with a wider network (= higher premium)
- a PPO with a small deductible in-network/larger one out-of-network
I have the wide network/no-deductible HMO and I'm very happy with my coverage. I also work for a university that has a huge health system attached to it, so I'm sure that helps. I pay $284/month for me and one LO. When LO#2 arrives we will all switch to my plan and it will be about $650/month for all 4 of us.
wonderful kiwi / 23653 posts
When we were on DH's insurance, we also only had a high deductible plan and it was TERRIBLE. I was pregnant and literally paid out of pocket for everything.
Then we had to switch to my job's insurance where they do offer the traditional PPO but the premium is soooo expensive. So either way it sucks!
wonderful pear / 26210 posts
I feel like we've had a ton of options in the past, there were HMOs, PPOs, high deductible plans, etc. Now, they've gotten rid of most of it and you basically have a choice between lower monthly premium/higher deductible or higher monthly premium/lower deductible. I don't think there is a way to game the system, you pay regardless of the plan you have. That's just the way it is now, employers are picking up less and less of the cost to insure their employees.
pear / 1521 posts
We have various HMOs offered from different healthcare companies. At least I think they are all HMOs. I think pretty much everyone choses the cheapest option which is still 10k a year in premiums for a family plan and now we have a deductible but it's only 750 a year. I know it's way better than what a lot of people have though.
If we had a high-deductible plan I would probably consider it because we don't have a lot of medical issues (knock on wood) and we would be able to properly fund a HSA.
Can the US just get a public option already (available to everyone and not just those without employer health insurance)???
clementine / 828 posts
We have a PPO and a high deductible plan, but the high deductible plan is clearly a better deal, between the employer contribution to the HSA and lower, but still high, premiums, and a lower OOP maximum.
coconut / 8854 posts
We have 2 PPO options (1 with higher premiums, and the other with lower) and 1 High deductible option. We are very fortunate that the PPO with the high premium, really isn't that high at all. I think it's $160/pay period for family coverage, biweekly payroll.
cherry / 196 posts
We have PPO and HSA options. I like the HSA, but switched to the PPO the year I gave birth because I knew expenses would be so high.
eggplant / 11824 posts
Through my employer we can elect either PPO or HSA and then choices within each of those (2 HSA choices and I believe 3 PPO "silver, gold, platinum" options).
We get family coverage through my husband's work - I don't know to be honest if they offer an HSA option but I don't think so. It's amazing PPO coverage heavily subsidized by his employer.
nectarine / 2243 posts
DH has one option, a HDHP, but his employer fully funds the $6500 OOP max (deductible is $4000). So we are on that. Since we have higher and lower health care costs depending on the year, we have a very sizable chunk of change in the HSA now. We are very, very thankful that his work funds it, but we also view it as part of his total compensation, not that is work is doing it out of the goodness of their hearts.
At my hospital, there is only one choice, and it pretty much requires you to stay in house for all of your care (which makes sense, but also unfortunate because there are a TON of amazing hospitals around us and ours is a small community hospital
nectarine / 2243 posts
@sunny: yeah, it is. In todays healthcare climate, its a rare bird for sure.
pomegranate / 3658 posts
My company offers a PPO. Deductible is $600 individual/$1200 family. OOP limit is $4500 individual/$9000 family.
eggplant / 11716 posts
I couldn't find my info, but I looked through old emails and found it. This is the PPO plan we are on, but we have 10 choices for healthcare--5 PPOs, 4 HMOs, and 2 HD plans.
kiwi / 706 posts
Nothing...we both work for very small businesses. We pay 1200/month for our family, with 2500 deductible and 7150 max out of pocket per person (double those for family).
We chose this plan because it was the least expensive option that allows us to keep our doctors (specifically pediatricians, allergists, and my OB) and we anticipate at least 1 ER visit per year (allergy or injury). We've always had awesome company-sponsored insurance before so I'm not really enjoying this year very much. 
nectarine / 2821 posts
@Littlebit7: At my hospital, which is a children's hospital, I would have to pay for a very expensive PPO plan if I wanted to bring my kids there! Instead, I pay nothing for the HMO plan, which could be considered a major local competitor. It's always seemed bizarre to me.
papaya / 10343 posts
We have one super pricey PPO option, and 2 high deductible HSA options. My husband just has 2 HSA options. I was really bitter when we moved to HSA but honestly it's been better for us. The premiums are a lot lower and if we put money in the HSA monthly, we don't actually have to pay anything out of pocket.
pineapple / 12053 posts
i voted other as i'm self employed and i don't even want to know what my options would be these days if we had to cover ourselves on the exchange! DH has every option under the sun as he's a sworn employee for a major city so we're very very lucky.
pomelo / 5524 posts
I actually work for the benefits department in our company. We have a high option and a low option PPO plan. We offer EPOs in some areas where we're unionized, but most only have the choice of the 2 PPO plans. We're likely going to move towards a narrow network next year, but that's still up in the air.
Based on union activity, we'll never move to an HDHP. Our company is lucky in that we can very much afford to provide a traditional PPO to our employees. There will likely be a larger gap in coverage between the high and low plan in the coming years.
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