Explanation
This chart will show you which insurance is best for you based on health insurance costs. Insurances are hard to understand
enough to understand based on all the different information so this was created to give a quick visual of which
plan is best based on your needs.
Here are a few examples on how I use the chart:
I rarely have medical problems so example 1 fits me best.
Example 1:
I expect not to go to the hospital at all. So i am expecting to have no medical costs at all this year. I then just care
about the zero for medical costs. I can see that Solution 2500 is my best option because it is cheapest in premiums.
But what if I have expenses? That leads us into...
Example 2:
Pretend that I have expected medical costs. Let's say I expect to have between 5500 and 6250 medical costs every year because
of a chronic illness. I then look at the chart to see which line is at the bottom of the chart in that location.
It looks like the PPO 20 would be my best option.
What if you want to prepare for the worst?
Example 3:
If you are prepare for the worst, just look at the far right of the chart. The lines level off there because that is where
max out of pocket expenses come into play. Again, look at the lowest line. That is the absolute most you will
spend including premiums except anything that is excluded from out of pocket expenses. There are some things.
Check your plan. In my case it is the Solution 2500 again.
Conclusion:
After actually taking the time to chart this out, my conclusion is that health insurance uses copays and deductibles as a
kind of a
red herring. All of my plans are
either named after the deductible or the copay. When in reality, the more important part seems to be the premium
with max out of pocket expense as a distant second (distant because they tend to be similar enough across the
different plans). If your premiums are low enough, the money saved will make up for the cost of the deductible
and probably the different in the out of pocket max. They did for me.
If you remove the Solution 2500 plan, it is slightly more interesting. The PPO 40 plan is the best plan
then assuming you will have less than $4300 in medical costs. However then the PPO 20 plan becomes the better
choice.
FAQ
Your graph doesn't make sense.
I'm sorry. I tried to best explain it using the samples. I will try once more right here briefly. Medical costs are what
the bill is assuming you don't have insurance. The bill is then offset by the percentage the insurance company
will pay after you have reached your deductible. So that is where the "Your Costs" axis comes into play. The
lower the number the better because that is YOUR final bill (including all year worth of premiums).
Copays matter. My family goes to the doctor a lot, why are you leaving them out?
They get complicated. Do you have a flat rate copay for a doctor or a percentage? Is it deductible waived? Do you want to
see the copays for the different tiers of medicines? It is just too much to put on this chart. The point of the
chart is to eyeball a rate to get an idea of what plan gives the best rates per level of medical cost.
The biggest difference in doctor visit copays is between PPO 40 ($40 copay) and Premier 10 ($10 copay).
If you have a family that is going to the doctor, that Premier 10 plan costs around $1000 dollars a pay period.
So I think you would have to be in a rather extreme situation to need to care about the $30 dollar spread. And
if you ARE in that situation, then you really need to evaluate your options much better than this graph can explain
things.
Your webpage design sucks!
I know :(
Source code at
https://bitbucket.org/none/health-care-chart