[ljoshua]

Health insurance in America is actually about managing cash flow rather than managing an insurance policy. After extensive research and data investigations, you'll discover that the actuaries at insurance companies are fantastic at what they do: you'll usually end up spending the same amount out-of-pocket in a year no matter the plan--the question is just would you rather spend more at the beginning of the year on lower premium plans, or spread out costs evenly throughout the year on higher premium plans.

A few associates and I are working on a (very very alpha) tool for plotting out actual expenditures for all plans for which you qualify, giving you a report of where you'll spend the least based on your expected health events. The tool saved me over $4,000 this year by guiding me towards a better health plan than what I had originally picked out when I switched to self employment.

If interested, check out http://lucentary.com/ (but please keep in mind we're still fleshing out an MVP!).

[ljoshua]

And as a side note, for my family I actually love high deductible plans when I can get the deductible around the same dollar figure as my max HSA contribution. Once I can hit the deductible for an individual, free healthcare!

I never hit it, because I have very few health needs. But add a pregnancy and delivery into the mix and you're set. It's the opposite effect of what the theory in the article supposed, but just one data point.