3 ms·

Yep. You get a choice to be gouged on premiums or essentially gamble, hoping that life doesn't reset your savings to $0 (or lower) by getting in a car accident

• fencepost 8y ago
  It's actually not quite as bad as that. My personal preference is for things with copays instead of coinsurance, but beyond that if you look at the maximum out of pocket for most of the plans there's not that much difference between Bronze, Silver and Gold. The big difference between a lot of them is whether it's frontloaded (high premium, lower deductible, higher percentage coverage, lower copay) or backloaded (lower premium, lower percentage coverage, higher deductible, higher copay). There are also big differences in the size of the provider network, so it makes sense to check your preferred physicians (if any) and hospitals. The thing I'd be very wary of is things like "50% coinsurance after deductible" which I think translates to "this is catastrophic coverage, you're responsible for all 'regular' medical expenses and we'll cover things like hospitalization." None of the selection is easy, even for professionals (https://armandalegshow.com/4-why-you-and-i-will-likely-pick-the-wrong-health-insurance-plan/ https://armandalegshow.com/4-why-you-and-i-will-likely-pick-... but all of the shows are interesting). Still, if you're in one of the states that allows a little longer to get on an Exchange plan and you need one, do so. Edit: another worthwhile read about the decision tree for selecting a plan if you're in a state that runs its own Exchange (like California where you have until mid-January): https://www.balloon-juice.com/2018/10/18/going-through-my-choice-structure/ https://www.balloon-juice.com/2018/10/18/going-through-my-ch...