I need to decide in the next few days whether to:
- Enroll my spouse and 2 kids on my company's plan with me, or
- keep them on their own separate plan (like we have now) or
- enroll my kids with me but keep my spouse separate
Company plans are all PPO (none with HSA, but there is FSA available) - we'd go with either plan 3 or 4 (comparison attached - bold rates are the monthly premium after company contribution). I'll definitely continue on a company plan.
Currently I'm on the company's cheapest PPO and husband/kids are on a separate ACA plan at about $432/month with an HSA option which we max out each year (this is our 3rd year doing it this way) as an additional emergency fund/potential retirement savings. That plan is going away, and the provider's most similar plan is $550/month in 2017.
Husband is considering Kaiser, so I've looked at quotes for just him and for him + 2 kids. It'd be the 'HSA Bronze' level either way. Around $220 for him, or $460 for all 3 of them, for $5,500/$11,000 deductible and $6,500/$13,000 out of pocket (pretty similar coverage to what I'd sign us up for through the company - plan 4).
To go back to the 3 options above, cost would be -
- ~$700 monthly (pre-tax money)
- ~$66 for me + $460 for them = $526
- ~$320 for me/kids + $220 for husband = $540
I'm wondering -
- Do we put ourselves at greater financial risk if, in the event of multiple big health issues, we have two different insurances with different deductibles to meet? (I mean, we're already doing this, but still...)
- Would we be missing out by not having the extra saving of an HSA or would we just put more away in other savings accounts instead?
- If we go with all of us on the company plan, how in the world do I decide how much to put aside for FSA?
We're all relatively healthy, no big ongoing issues; the 5yr old had/has asthma but hasn't had issues in a while... she has managed to go to the ER for ear infections twice in the last 2 years though (yay HSA).
