High Deductible Health Insurance/PPO ?

[TexasRachel]

We have good coverage through DH's work and have always had BCBS, but we just found out that DH's doc isn't going to be covered by them anymore. So we need to look for another plan. There are lots of options, including some "consumer driven health plans" which are high deductible plans with health savings accounts built in. They kind of make our head spin trying to figure out what to do. Most everyone at work has BCBS so we can't ask them.

 

A typical year involves 2-5 dr visits and 1 ER visit. Prescriptions and preventive care are going to be about equal between plans. Would you switch to a lower cost health plan (HDHP) versus a regular PPO? We can afford the PPO. It's what we're used to. But saving money is always a good thing.

 

I guess it just comes down to how much of a gamble do we take? How well do the high deductible plans work for you? It just seems like a huge headache.

[Leav97]

It's going to depend on the #'s. What is the monthly premium for both plans, out of pocket maximum for individuals, out of pocket max for family, deductible, how does it change the cost if you max out the Health Savings Account, what do you normally spend each year.

 

What would it cost if you paid the HDHP premium and hit the out of pocket max? What would cost if you paid the PPO premium and the out of pocket max?

 

For my family it was almost the same to keep our standard plan or go with a HDHP with a maxed out HSA. I picked the HDHP because at the end of the year anything left in the HSA would carry over to the next year. In the 2 years we've had the HSA we haven't had anything left to carry over and have hit the family out of pocket max. It's been a crappy couple of years for health care expenses for our family. That said, we'll be picking the HDHP again this year.

[Sharon37127]

We are in the same boat here. Only husband & I are covered on it though. We are going to try it for a year and see. I like that fact that the deductible isn't use it or loose it. It carries over and any balance later in life is treated like retirement savings (don't know really how that works). His employer is also dumping 1000 for the 5000 deductible. The premium is a SIGNIFICANT drop for us.

[brownie]

We have a high deductible now. It's not too bad. You get a huge deduction over not having insurance bc you pay what the insurance company would have paid anyhow, and if we have major issues, everything is covered when we hit our deductible (and I mean everything - no copays). We calculated the costs.. Our high deductible ended up lower than the amount we would pay for premiums for the regular plan. $ wise it was a no-brainer. There is some stress of realizing every time you go to the doctor you will be paying for it yourself, and then making a decision. We do get more bills in the mail, but no big deal.