Opinions about high-deductible health insurance plans?

[AmyAnne]

For the first time, my employer is offering us the option of a high-deductible health insurance plan. I know that an advantage of these plans is that they allow enrollment in a health savings account. I also know the monthly premiums are lower (in my case, $89 per month lower) but out-of-pocket expenses can be higher if health care is actually needed.

I am lucky to be pretty healthy (no chronic illnesses) but I am also just turning 50, so I know the risk of things going wrong is increasing.

I know there are some folks here who are knowledgeable about health insurance -- what do you think? If anyone has one of these policies, was it a good decision?

 

[kymom99]

I have one and my husband just switched to one. It has worked for us.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

We did high deductible for years. When calculating what to do, I looked at worse case scenario under each plan.

For our particular options, worst case scenario under high deductible was actually better than worst case under the standard plans. ETA: And the best case scenario was obviously best under the HDHP.

We also always maxed out our HSA each year.

 

[tvguy]

Define "High Deductible".
Our's is $5,000, the highest option we have.
It saves us $200 a month in premiums, so $2,400 a years.
We have had it 4 years, and only one year did we pay out more in deductibles than we saved in premiums, $2,500. Company kicks in $750 a year into the HSA.

 

[dhardawa]

I would prefer not to have one, but that is all that is offered where I work. My deductible is $3,800 a year and I've got a child who sees a therapist and a psychiatrist. I hit the deductible every year and it is painful.

 

[stephk1981]

We took a high deductible plan option with husband's first job. We thought, we are both under 25, non smokers and healthy. Why not? Right? We didn't know it at the time, but we were a few weeks pregnant with DS. We ended up paying the high deductible plus a percentage of the hospital bill
If you have weighed out the pros and cons, and the high deductible plan wins out for you, then do it! Personally, I would just make sure I have adequate back up savings ' I'm case' of a medical emergency.....which I am quite sure won't happen! Just to be careful Good luck in your decision, and wishing you lots of good health in the future!

 

[tvguy]

We took a high deductible plan option with husband's first job. We thought, we are both under 25, non smokers and healthy. Why not? Right? We didn't know it at the time, but we were a few weeks pregnant with DS. We ended up paying the high deductible plus a percentage of the hospital bill
If you have weighed out the pros and cons, and the high deductible plan wins out for you, then do it! Personally, I would just make sure I have adequate back up savings ' I'm case' of a medical emergency.....which I am quite sure won't happen! Just to be careful Good luck in your decision, and wishing you lots of good health in the future!

Yeah, the devil is in the details. Fortunately, after I have paid the $5,000 almost 100% of a hospital bill is covered.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

Yeah, the devil is in the details. Fortunately, after I have paid the $5,000 almost 100% of a hospital bill is covered.

Thats how ours was. $6k family deductible, but also $6k max oop.

 

[tvguy]

Thats how ours was. $6k family deductible, but also $6k max oop.

Yeah, the insurance companies know from the stats how much they are going to have to pay out, and base premiums on that number.
What drives their costs up are the cost of processing lots of small claims. That is the unpredictable portion of their cost that they try and cut down by offering the higher deductible plans with lower rates.

 

[MrsPete]

We had a high-deductible plan for about 15 years, and it worked great for us. In those years, our kids were out of the need-a-vaccination-every-other-month stage, but we -- the parents -- were still young and healthy. Over the course of 15 years, we kept good records; we knew that at some point we'd need to jump ship to a traditional plan.

Over those 15 years, we "lost" twice. We lost the year one of the kids had a badly broken arm. And we lost when my husband went into the hospital, and we found out he was diabetic. However, we "won" 13 out of 15 years, so we are totally satisfied that we made the right decision.

However, diabetes is the 9th most expensive disease in America today, and once he was diagnosed we knew it was time to jump ship and go with a more expensive plan. We switched the next time the opportunity arose, and it hurt -- but our cheap years were done, and it was the right choice.

 

[slpeters]

We have the lower premium option through my employer, but it's nothing like what others are describing. Between the max out of pocket and the MRA we generally pay nothing beyond the premiums but could run I believe as much as $1200 for one of us or $2200 for both of us. Plus the MRA rolls if funds are unused. There probably are more economical ways to do it but I know for my temperament I need to feel like everything is taken care of if something goes horribly wrong.

 

[DreamIsaWish]

We've had high deductible for years and it's worked for us. Grade school kids, but quite healthy. I think one of the keys is to take the money you're saving on the premiums and put it away to pay for the possible deductible and up to out of pocket max. Whether you put it into the HSA or some other earmarked location, that helps with the sting if you should have to start paying bills. I think the differential between high deductible and traditional premiums for me is about the amount of the deductible so it works for us.

 

[pearlieq]

Pay attention to the out of pocket maximum on any plan you're considering. No matter what the deductible is, that's your true worst-case scenario.

 

[wendow]

My dh's employer only offered one HDHP and we took it. Good for the first year. It was a good deal for our family. We paid $490 month and deductible was 10k for our family. Unfortunately, my dd18 got sick with a chronic illness the next year. We met the 10k real fast, and then were responsible for 20% of the bills, up to 15k. We hit that too. naively, I thought she'd be better the next year so we stuck with that plan. Hit all the money amounts again. The next year we changed from the HDHP to a $1500 deductible pp/3k family and $800 month.

We maxed out the HSA with the HDHP and now also with the FSA. Hoping we can switch back to the HDHP this next year. My dd is not healed but lots better

 

[1st*toright]

Like the Disney Dining plans, you have to run the numbers based on your family's particular needs. In general, high deductible plans are great for people who are generally healthy, provided you use a HSA to bank the difference between the high deductible plan premiums and regular plan premiums. If your employer kicks in cash towards your HSA, that makes the numbers even more compelling.

High deductible plans can also be great if you have a really rough year, esp if more than 1 family member is affected - I don't do pregnancy well, and we hit our deductible during the 2 plan years during which I was pregnant. We had $$ saved in our HSA from our "good" years that we could use, and the combination of deductibles we would have been subject to under my company's "regular" insurance was actually more than the overall family deductible under the high deductible plan (under the regular plan, we each would have had a regular deductible, plus a hospital deductible, plus co-insurance on top of higher premiums).

If you are in the middle, sometimes the regular plan can work better. Figuring out the answer can be challenging - I spend a while developing a spreadsheet to compare all the costs.

My family does have some ongoing medical needs, but we max our our HSA every year and have enough $ in that account to pay for our full out of pocket maximum (so for the past several years we have been saving significantly more that we've wound up using under the high-deductible plan). My current employer also only offers a high deductible plan, so the analysis is moot these days!

 

[SC Minnie]

We've had the high ded plan for a few years-- since the first year my employer offered it. Last year they stopped offering the PPO all together so the only option is the high ded plan or 'Consumer Driven Health Plan'. The first year my employer gave $1500 into the HSA. I calculated the difference in the PPO premium and the CDHP and continued to put that difference in the HSA account every month. We've now got more than the OOP max in our HSA. We don't use the HSA for small trips to the Dr-- if the bill is less than $250 I just pay it out of my checking account.

DH and I are fairly healthy and don't take any meds on a daily basis. If you or anyone in your family does, do the research on the cost of those meds on your high ded plan. It was a huge shock to some here that were forced in to the high ded from the PPO.

 

[SandyinMonterey]

For the first time, my employer is offering us the option of a high-deductible health insurance plan. I know that an advantage of these plans is that they allow enrollment in a health savings account. I also know the monthly premiums are lower (in my case, $89 per month lower) but out-of-pocket expenses can be higher if health care is actually needed.

I am lucky to be pretty healthy (no chronic illnesses) but I am also just turning 50, so I know the risk of things going wrong is increasing.

I know there are some folks here who are knowledgeable about health insurance -- what do you think? If anyone has one of these policies, was it a good decision?

Had one for a couple of years at my husband's old job and hated it. Everything was out of pocket until a very high deductible was met, I think it was $5k for individual, forget what it was for family. Every year taking my daughter for her yearly physical was $400 out of pocket. That was also for pharmacy/medications. Had to meet a high deductible (don't remember amount) but I do remember shelling out about $250 every month for her inhalers. I remember talking to my eye doctor about health care plans/coverage during my eye exam (don't remember how we got on the subject) but he said his office considered going to a high deductible health insurance plan because the main reason was the savings for the employer. He said he felt it really had no benefit for their employees and their employees really hated the idea. They didn't sign up for it.

 

[MomToOne]

I've had one for a few years. I loved it until this year when I was put on a $400/month drug. I'm not loving those out-of-pocket payments up to my deductible. But I've done the math, and it's still the best option for me given the fact that my company donates $1500 to my HSA. I would still spend more on the premiums for a non-high deductible plan than I am on this plan, expensive drug and all.

My brother's father-in-law is a doctor. He always said insurance isn't for the day to day bumps, bruises and broken bones. It may hurt your budget, but you can find ways to pay for those things. Insurance is really there for the awful stuff - long-term illnesses like cancer. That's where the insurance plan you have makes or breaks you. So I try to keep most of my focus on that when picking a plan.

Given all that, if you go with a high deductible plan, just be sure to max out your HSA contributions. That's the magic that makes these plans work well for many people.

 

[kamik86]

Had one for a couple of years at my husband's old job and hated it. Everything was out of pocket until a very high deductible was met, I think it was $5k for individual, forget what it was for family. Every year taking my daughter for her yearly physical was $400 out of pocket. That was also for pharmacy/medications. Had to meet a high deductible (don't remember amount) but I do remember shelling out about $250 every month for her inhalers. I remember talking to my eye doctor about health care plans/coverage during my eye exam (don't remember how we got on the subject) but he said his office considered going to a high deductible health insurance plan because the main reason was the savings for the employer. He said he felt it really had no benefit for their employees and their employees really hated the idea. They didn't sign up for it.

I love mine. My husband and I are in our low 30s and hate going to the doctors. Yearly physicals are free (which we really should actually do yearly but well see part about hating dealing with doctors). The only prescription we have regularly is my birth control which is also free. My coworkers that are older and have prescriptions or kids that tend to get injured more often hate it. Someone here actually made a spreadsheet that calculates which plans are better at what level of medical expenses and this is much much cheaper for us now. I figured for us we just have to put some of this money into savings for that year where something happens and one of us needs it.

 

[Mrs. Bradbury]

For the first time, my employer is offering us the option of a high-deductible health insurance plan. I know that an advantage of these plans is that they allow enrollment in a health savings account. I also know the monthly premiums are lower (in my case, $89 per month lower) but out-of-pocket expenses can be higher if health care is actually needed.

I am lucky to be pretty healthy (no chronic illnesses) but I am also just turning 50, so I know the risk of things going wrong is increasing.

I know there are some folks here who are knowledgeable about health insurance -- what do you think? If anyone has one of these policies, was it a good decision?

My advice would be to compare the benefits of the two plans, because I did when a high-deductible plan was offered by my employer. I was surprised that the coverage was NOT the same - less coverage overall with the high deductible plan. And since you don't know how good your insurance is until you need it, and goodness gracious have we needed it, we stayed with the more traditional PPO/POS.

ETA: by coverage I mean, what it actually pays once you've met individual & family deductibles - the % it pays, what each policy covers (and does not), how many visits, out of state coverage, behavioral/mental health, etc. There can be variability.