Hey guys, I've been with my company for a few years now, and our enrollment period is currently open. I've been on the same plan the past few years and have generally been happy with it. The company covers a significant chunk of our premiums, so I only pay $47 a month which I understand is fairly decent for a gold-level plan. Here's a link to an overview of some of the plan details.
However, I'm intrigued at maybe trying out one of the HSA compatible plans available to me. Here's the one I've been trying to compare against, since it's also a gold-level plan. Here's what I don't get--I thought that HDHP/HSA plans were supposed to be all about risk/reward, like you pay lower premiums (and this plan would only cost me $7 a month in premiums) but if you actually need to use it, the costs are way more onerous.
But this HSA plan's deductible is $1500, the same as my current POS plan, and it's OOP max is significantly lower at $3,000 vs. my current plan's $7,650. I understand that with the HSA plan, I'll essentially pay full price for everything until I hit that deductible, which means a flat $1,500 if I were to need any non-preventative healthcare. But after that it caps out at $3,000, so even if I get into that obvious "hit by a bus" scenario, I'm still really not going to really need to pay a ton (and I'd pay less than my current plan would cost me).
I also have to consider my particular medical needs. I don't really need to see the doctor often, I go for my regular preventive wellness check each year, and then MAYBE once a year I might see another specialist about a specific issue. I have a prescription I occasionally need filled, but it's a pretty well known medication with generic versions so I'm not thinking it'd be that expensive OOP.
The other thing is that while my medical costs are low, I need to take care of a significant amount of dental work over the next 1-2 years. I have some crowns/possible root canal I need to do and gum graft surgery, all of which will cost me upwards of $1500 or more even with my company dental insurance, and I figure that if I set up an HSA, I can earmark the funds I'll need to spend for these and put them in the HSA, then just get some guaranteed tax savings on them and any future dental costs that come up.
So am I missing something here? Are there other major pitfalls with HDHP/HSA plans that I'm not considering and would change my calculus? Am I just minimizing how annoying it will be to pay "sticker shock" prices if I break my arm and have to go to the hospital on the HSA plan? Thanks in advance for any help you can offer!
TL;DR Costs on my company's HSA health plan seem curiously low, can't decide if making the jump to this plan is right for me.
Submitted March 09, 2019 at 10:24AM by Jazz-Cigarettes https://ift.tt/2VMNAN8
