medical insurance poll

Bella Bleu · July 2011

would you rather have medical insurance with a lower monthly premium and a higher deductible or a lower deductible and a higher monthly premium? Discuss....

ijack · July 2011

there are way too many other factors that go into health insurance to answer that question

JaysonandKristin · July 2011

For my family, we have our OOPM ($5,000) saved in an acct just for that reason. So, I'm OK with high deductible low premium. But, my DS1 was born with a birth defect that requires plenty of follow ups and diagnostic testing and his future is not certain, so I'd ultimately like something that covers a higher percentage of each visit or test or surgery AND something that has a lower OOPM. Ultimately, that would mean that I'd rather pay higher premiums...

Matt Dvorak · July 2011

hmmm...I guess generally I would say the lower monthly costs and higher deductibles. This is the first year we've ever gotten our moneys worth out of health insurance. We have enough in savings that if something did come up and we had to pay a high deductible, we would be fine. When we're older and have higher risks of health issues, I'd probably switch that around.

danni914 · July 2011

I think it really depends on if you are younger and healthier you can take a little more risk with the higher deductible because the likelihood of you getting sick is low. If you are older or have known medical issues that require regular care the lower deductible option is better.

It's all about how much risk you are willing to take.

BnchaNums · July 2011

ijack:
there are way too many other factors that go into health insurance to answer that question

Agreed. We spent a LOT of time going over our options this year. We decided to go lower deductible (still $1600), higher monthly payment because we figured that if we hit our OOP max ($4500) we'd save about 2k over the other plan. Should we not get close, it's a wash. Next year we'll likely go back to the higher deductible plan and then we'll put the difference in our HSA (which we can't do with our current plan) assuming that LO doesn't have any apparent health problems.

Skibunny07 · July 2011

I think it depends on too many things. Right now our plan is low cost and no deductible but I know next year we will have to choose between a lower deductible/higher premium or a lower premium/higher deductible plan and I'm dreading it. I think if I was able to put away for the deductible in an FSA then I might be ok with the higher deductible, depending on how high it is. If I knew it was going to be a low cost year (no births, no surgeries that we are planning for). I would maybe go with the higher deductible one hoping that we don't need to use it all. If I was pregnant again and knew our costs would be higher, I would maybe want to go with the lower deductible. I think the big thing though would be weighing all of the costs. Looking at the higher premiums and seeing how much they add up to over the cost of the year, how does that compare to the lower premiums plus the cost of the deductible? Its too many factors.

ETweet · July 2011

Depends how it mathmatically adds up. My hubby and I have the exact same insurance plan, Medica Elect, but we pay different premiums and deductibles. With mine, I don't pay a premium, just a whopping deductible. With his, he pays a pretty high premium, but low deductible. If we were to both max our deductibles out each year, mine would be way more expensive. Depends who is using it also. We almost wish we could trade because he never uses his insurance, where I do all of the time.