# How in the world do you compare insurance plans? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 21, 2015, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-in-the-world-do-you-compare-insurance-plans/735305 "2015-10-21T00:22:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2015, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-in-the-world-do-you-compare-insurance-plans/735305/21 "2015-11-16T13:26:49Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > \*\*kunilou \*\*nailed it. HDHP is the way to go for people who don’t use chronic medical care now AND expect to go another 12 months the same way AND can come up with the total high deductible amount early in the year if this is the year their luck runs out. I just wanted to point out that in every case I’ve looked at personally, HDHP is also the way to go if you _do_ have a chronic medical condition. I do, I max out my deductible in the first few months of the year every year, and whenever I’ve crunched the numbers the HDHP wins. The premium difference between HDHP and traditional wins out every time, even after factoring in the deductible. I’m lucky enough to be on an employer plan atm, but this played out even when purchasing insurance privately. HDHP is the way to go in almost all cases. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2015, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-in-the-world-do-you-compare-insurance-plans/735305/22 "2015-11-16T13:37:45Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > You won’t be homeless. I’ve never met a single medical place that won’t work with you, allowing you to make payments. I know we paid like $75 a month on a $9000 bill at my current doctor’s office. And if they don’t negotiate low enough, there’s always loans if you have the credit (or know a family member who can help) or even bankruptcy, which has a way of forcing creditors to take what they can get lest you do actually go homeless with Chapter 7 and they get nothing. > > Now, I’m not saying I agree that the highest deductible is necessarily the best. Sure, on paper you save the most, but the things you may have to do to cover the deductible may not be worth it to you. In my mind, insurance is about planning for the worst, not really about saving money. > > But I see no reason to fear having a deductible at all, thinking that having one will make you homeless. You’re lecturing someone who was already homeless once due to medical bills. It’s one of the leading causes of bankruptcy and homelessness in the US. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2015, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-in-the-world-do-you-compare-insurance-plans/735305/23 "2015-11-16T18:55:19Z")
[QUOTE=BigT] You won’t be homeless. I’ve never met a single medical place that won’t work with you, allowing you to make payments. [/QUOTE] From unfortunate recent experience, Sutter Health (One of the big hospital chains in the San Francisco area) won’t budge even a nickel or offer a payment plan, and they’ll cheerfully kick you over to collections before the insurance billing is completed. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2015, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-in-the-world-do-you-compare-insurance-plans/735305/24 "2015-11-16T19:26:31Z")
> [@Athena](#): > > I just wanted to point out that in every case I’ve looked at personally, HDHP is also the way to go if you _do_ have a chronic medical condition. I do, I max out my deductible in the first few months of the year every year, and whenever I’ve crunched the numbers the HDHP wins. > > The premium difference between HDHP and traditional wins out every time, even after factoring in the deductible. I’m lucky enough to be on an employer plan atm, but this played out even when purchasing insurance privately. > > HDHP is the way to go in almost all cases. I recently did a comparison spreadsheet on the plans available where I work (a HDHP, a 80/20, a 90/10 and a 95/5). Interestingly enough, for a family of four (employee, spouse and 2 kids) and the way the OOP maximums and deductibles are set, the HDHP wins out on the small end (up to about 5000 bucks billed per annum), then the 80/20 wins out between 5,000 and about 20,000, and then from 20,000 to about 75,000 billed, the 90/10 is the cheapest overall. Above 75,000, the HDHP wins out again, as it hits the max OOP way, way faster than the rest. And that’s dependent on everything being in-network. It gets a little weirder when you factor in out of network stuff. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-in-the-world-do-you-compare-insurance-plans/735305.md?page=1)