alafly

I've been reviewing and asked around. Still not certain which plan to go with. Wife and two kids at home. Very healthy family and blessed for that. Minimal Doc visits. No pre existing conditions. Buy up plan for last 6 years. Non military. I appreciate your input. Thanks

USMCFDX

For me Buy-Up no hesitation. Wife and two kids at home also.

The one year I didn't buy up one kid broke an arm and needed pins installed, I didn't save any money that year. This year I needed two expensive procedures that I never saw coming. I paid $40 for one and $90 ($40+$50) for the other. I easily would have maxed out the new plans out of pocket expense.

You never know what might happen and for me the extra cost is worth the peace of mind. Pay now or be ready to pay later if something happens.

155mm

I agree! Buy-up plan is only about $50 more a pay period. I had a kid hospitalized for a couple weeks. I paid $150 out of pocket ER visit but total bill $35K covered! However, pay attention to in-network versus out of network (costly) when seeking healthcare! Also, specialty prescriptions are costly as well, so you may consider the Healthcare flexible spending account which is pre-tax $$. Use it or lose it for prescriptions, eyeglasses, co-pay, etc!

The purple and orange plans have health savings accounts which is pretty cool because if you stay healthy, the money is rolled over year to year and you can take it with you upon retirement. I think financially, it is a greater risk, especially if you have dependents!

I'm glad to read some dialogue on this topic, please chime in.

Check6Viper

155mm,

In the example you gave, the Purple plan would have saved you money! Check this out:

$35k hospital bill - Buy up cost $150.
$35k hospital bill - Purple plan cost -
- $2600 deductible
- $1650 coinsurance (10% of $16500)
- $0 ($15900 paid for by the company since you hit your single person out of pocket max)
- for a total of $4250. You received $4600 from the company into your HSA, so you paid off that $4250 with that money, leaving you with $350 in your account.

Result?
Buy up plan - $4752 yearly premium plus $150 for a total of $4902.
Purple plan - $4272 yearly premium plus $0. ALSO - you still have $350 in your HSA.

The worst part about these CDHPs are how confusing they are.

USMCFDX, in both of your examples you would have saved money with the Purple plan as well. It actually takes a $19000 bill to hit your out of pocket max with the Purple plan and even if you do, you STILL pay less than you would with the buy up. The only way you lose money that I can tell is if you have multiple people have large bills in multiple consecutive years.

I didn't really understand it at all until I watched the video ALPA released.

KnightFlyer

Buy-up still for us. We're older, have more issues and only 3-4 yrs until retirement. Seems simpler to deal with administratively. If we were younger and healthier, I'd jump on the Purple and start banking the HSA (and invest it).

busdriver12

That one was a no brainer for me, sticking with the buy up plan. Price didn't really go up as much as I thought it would. Getting older, don't have time to build up much in the HSA's. Very healthy, but I do a lot of preventative and proactive things. I don't want to worry about scrimping on that to keep building up in my HSA. It's really nice to still have a fantastic health care plan, and I don't feel like nickel and diming it, and choosing not to get health care that I'd like to get, but don't really need. This has got to be the best plan around, for sure!

USMCFDX

Check6,

I watched the whiteboard video and guess I will have to watch it again. I did come very close to spending $19k in medical bills.

Rum Runner

Buy up for us as well. Young kids with lots of doctor visits. We've had it all along and like the aspect of paying the co-pay and being done with it. I thought the price was going to go up more as well.

Check6Viper

busdriver, you may already know this, but for the CHDPs "preventative" care is covered at 100%. I think this means that for those types of appointments, with the Buy Up plan you'll pay a co-pay, and for the Purple and Orange plan you'll pay $0.

"Benefit from a healthy lifestyle
Effective in 2011, PPACA added PHS Act Sec. 2713. All new HSA-qualified health
plans are required to cover 100 percent of standard preventive care services, as
designated by your health plan."

busdriver12

I guess the million dollar question is what is considered preventative. I do things that I consider "proactive", but might not be considered preventative. For example, I get a extraordinarily large number of different blood tests, that most people would not get. They may not consider those preventative. I had a minor heart issue that most people would not bother to follow up, but I got the full workup by a cardiologist. Would that be preventative, I don't know. Once you've had cysts removed during a colonoscopy, I'd heard that colonoscopies after that which are more frequent than average, and cyst removal is no longer preventative care, don't know if that's true with our insurance. I went to the podiatrist recently, spent $1K in doctors visits and orthotics, I suspect that would cost me a bundle under a different plan, but cost me $40.

The reality is, I feel like I have great insurance, the consumer driven health care plans don't look like they'd save me much money, and it seems like it would be a hassle following it all up for what could be a negligible benefit.
And I guess I'm kind of lazy. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, in my opinion.