I don't think "cheap" is the best way to explain it. I have a high deductible plan which is pretty cheap and tied to an HSA. My wife and I are on the hook for the first $5,000 per year, and the insurance will pick up 100% of the costs after that. I won't run into the problems you're talking about. I like it because I don't really think minor medical expenses should really be covered by insurance anyway. I liken it to having car insurance pay for routine car maintenance.
My wife and I are on the hook for the first $5,000 per year, and the insurance will pick up 100% of the costs after that.
Sounds like you have a near-identical plan to the one my wife and I have. Don't bank on the insurance company doing what they say they will, at least not without a fight. Just to throw out a random example, in the few weeks after our daughter was born we received a dozen or so letters from the insurance company all telling us the company didn't think some aspect of the childbirth care was "necessary", and that they didn't want to pay for it. Quite a shocker for us, as the birth was relatively routine, and every intervention was something the medical staff thought was necessary. In the end, after hours of phone calls, we got them to pay for most of it, but definitely not 100% of the after-deductible amount.
I wish I could buy such a policy, but it's actually illegal in Massachusetts.
Insurers are not allowed to sell a plan that doesn't cover a long list of routine preventative care. And they're not allowed to offer deductibles greater than $2000 per person or $4000 per family.
The problem with paying for routine health maintenance out of pocket (or HSA) is that, in the absence of insurance negotiating the price down, a routine 15 minute doctor visit costs $85, and a routine blood test costs $400. Granted, hiding those prices behind a monthly insurance premium allows them to remain high -- there's a bit of a chicken and egg problem.
You should look into finding a doctor who doesn't take insurance. There are a few here and there, normally family/primary care type docs. You pay them cash, and because they have zero overhead in their practice for insurance billing, they can charge you less AND spend more time with you.
Interesting. If one found oneself seeking an insurance-free doctor in the future, how would one go about locating such a doctor? What questions would one ask, keywords would one search, or directories would one consult?
One advantage to a high deductible policy (besides being covered in case of something big and bad happening) is that your normal care will be billed at the rate the insurance company negotiates for all its clients, even if you are paying out of pocket or via HSA because you haven't hit your deductible.
HSA gets you the negotiated rate, you just pay the negotiated rate yourself. It's really the best of both worlds.
If fails if you have an ongoing condition which costs (at negotiated rates enough that the difference in premiums between a PPO and an HSA is less than the deductible for the HSA. Personally, I don't think charging $100-200/mo in premium and expecting to pay out $500-1000/mo in existing care from day one, plus the possibility of higher costs for new conditions down the line, is a viable proposition for a private insurer. That should be paid by individuals themselves or by government (as a direct subsidy), but it's not insurance.
