Edited from the original for simplification and a change in plans:
Would love some help deciding on a health insurance plan during open enrollment for 2015.
I am 13 weeks pregnant, due end of April. So far this is a low risk pregnancy and I'm healthy.
Currently I'm on a plan with a restrictive network that would cover everything 100% (including my hospital stay) as long as I stay in network. I would have an out of pocket max of $5000 should I choose to go out of network. We have plenty of savings to cover this.
I have the option of moving to a different plan with a broader network that would include name-brand hospital (NBH), which is very nice, has the best NICU, where I did my pediatrics residency and has my former OB/GYN that I love. Going with this plan would guarantee that I pay $1550 more - the cost of a hospital stay at NBH would be very high even for a normal vaginal birth, but I would also hit my out of pocket max with it and everything else should be covered 100%.
Premiums are similar between the two plans, so basically $0 for my pregnancy/birth in a hospital that I would feel comfortable in as long as everything was fine vs. $1550 for the name-brand hospital.
I'm leaning towards staying with the low-cost plan since I think I have a 99% chance of everything being ok. But then I start thinking, gosh, my husband and I have great salaries and am I just being stingy, trying to save a few dollars when we're talking about the health of my brand new baby? What if there's an emergency with no time to transfer and would I regret not being in the place with the most resources? What do you guys think?