For those of us who are self-employed, I'll mention that low or no deductible health plans may provide better value.
When they sort of work, health deductible health plans are nice because: (1) monthly premiums are low and (2) they give access to a health savings account (HSA) where some amount of money can be stored pre-tax and then used for health related expenses. Of course, none of this saves someone that gets hammered with a $5000 bill like those in the article.
Anyway, the pre-tax HSA account seems to be an attractive to many, and it may be benefit some. However, if you're self-employed, you can deduct your premiums off your income through the self-employed health insurance deduction:
https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc502
This means that there may be higher tax benefit for a high-premium, but low or no-deductible plan. Personally, I find it much easier to handle than going through the trouble of an HSA.
All that said, it's pretty much all the same in a catastrophic case. Just take the premiums x 12 + out-of-pocket max to figure out the "maximum" yearly liability. At least on the ACA exchanges, this number is typically $11-15k on what I've seen from either high or low-deductible plans. If you can't make this number, you're not fully covered for catastrophic. Alternatively, if the hospital sends a bill to an out-of-network operator, you're probably screwed as well.
Anyway, this is not to detract from the article. This is a huge problem. Mostly, I wanted to pass on some information that I had to sort through when picking and choosing plans over the years.
When they sort of work, health deductible health plans are nice because: (1) monthly premiums are low and (2) they give access to a health savings account (HSA) where some amount of money can be stored pre-tax and then used for health related expenses. Of course, none of this saves someone that gets hammered with a $5000 bill like those in the article.
Anyway, the pre-tax HSA account seems to be an attractive to many, and it may be benefit some. However, if you're self-employed, you can deduct your premiums off your income through the self-employed health insurance deduction:
https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc502
This means that there may be higher tax benefit for a high-premium, but low or no-deductible plan. Personally, I find it much easier to handle than going through the trouble of an HSA.
All that said, it's pretty much all the same in a catastrophic case. Just take the premiums x 12 + out-of-pocket max to figure out the "maximum" yearly liability. At least on the ACA exchanges, this number is typically $11-15k on what I've seen from either high or low-deductible plans. If you can't make this number, you're not fully covered for catastrophic. Alternatively, if the hospital sends a bill to an out-of-network operator, you're probably screwed as well.
Anyway, this is not to detract from the article. This is a huge problem. Mostly, I wanted to pass on some information that I had to sort through when picking and choosing plans over the years.