Hellobee Boards

@Mrs. Jump Rope: Is Plan A the one you're on now and Plan B is the standard plan?

We are currently on the buy up plan, but after this baby is born we may switch to high deductible, as long as all goes smoothly and she is healthy. Dh's company throws in $1000 per year to our HSA if we go that route, and that money never expires. We can spend a year or two paying our HSA instead of the premiums we are used to and have a huge pile of cash to cover expenses. The premiums for high deductible are like $50 per month for our family instead of $450, so its a huge savings each month as long as we are relatively healthy. Well care is covered 100%, and sick visits are about $80 at our ped.

@Mrs. Jump Rope: Yeah, the insurance options are weirdly regional...we have a choice among United Healthcare, Cigna, and something else, I can't remember.

I apply the approach that if it aint broke, don't fix it, I probably wouldn't switch.

I would say really think about how much you really need health insurance for. I agree with lawbee11 that between your deductible and meeting OOP costs, it is only $1500, so the standard plan is actually saving you money. However, with the standard plan you would have to 'spend' about an extra $4,500 after meeting the deductible to meet the yearly premium you would pay for the higher plan. So, do you really think you would spend over $13,000 for the year in health insurance? I know anything can happen, but if you think generally no, than go with the standard plan.

I literally just finished my spreadsheet to figure this out, so I plugged your numbers in. If I got this right, B is actually the better choice unless you anticipate more than 21k in medical charges.
The graphs are plots of billed amount for services vs total cost (plan cost + out of pocket). I don't know your plan cost, so I just put in a random number with a difference of $2400 between the plans. It would scale linearly, so that's unimportant to see the relationship between the two plan curves.

@Mrs. Jump Rope: Sent!

Standard plan. The 20% coinsurance only matters up until the OOP max which is only $1000 more than plan A. So, you're saving $1400 a year in premiums ($2400 savings minus the $1000 difference in OOP max).

@Mrs. Jump Rope: I can't imagine a scenario where it would be more cost-effective to choose Plan A.

@PurplePumps: Done!!

The other thing is, this is just for one year. If you guys take a hit next year in health care issues, just bump over to the high plan during open enrollment next year and in the meantime, put more in savings.

@Mrs. Jump Rope: The benefit to the high plan is people who struggle to run numbers like you did. Your analysis while simple is spot on what I would do. Most people have a fear of numbers and money, and therefore think something along the lines of, I'd rather have a set amount come out of my paycheck to protect me later. So they pay the higher premiums to save on the deductible. But in the long run, it's really not a savings