Totally agree with getting the cheapest 'catastrophic' plan out there. With the ACA in effect, even these plans will cover reproductive health and an annual checkup at 100%...awesome start!
1. Ask. Get prices for services (visits etc) from different offices beforehand. Ask about the self-pay option which may be much less than your carrier's negotiated rate. If you aren't going to hit the deductible anyway, paying cash to go see the doc for a sore throat may be a great option and in my experience you can save 50% or more in your out of pocket cost. You can ask your carrier what their reimbursement rates are as well. These typically go along with the CPT procedure code that is billed for different visit types.
I'd be careful with this approach. Note that by "reproductive health", ecarr26 presumably means an annual well-woman visit, birth control (all methods--not necessarily all options within that method), and cervical cancer screening. There isn't any other reproductive health I can think of that's included for free (and without the deductible applying) with catastrophic plans. If you have a baby, that's going to cost you a lot out of pocket. The only services that are "free" with Marketplace plans can be found here:
www.cdc.gov/preventionNote that it can be very difficult to find out what some medical service is going to cost you, even if you do have the CPT code(s) (which are a pain to get). Even when I've tried this approach I've been told wildly inaccurate information (literally being wrong by double). And you will need to know in advance all the codes that will be used for your service, including provider billing, facility billing, lab billing, etc. If you get some additional service while you're there (often happens with medical visits), that's another set of codes you'd need. So if you're just going to have and office visit and get a prescription and nothing else, this is easier to figure out. If you're doing anything more complicated, it gets more complicated. YMMV.
And if you pay in cash, you aren't following the contract you have with your insurer. This is OK if your expenses are under the deductible anyway. However, if you have an expensive year, you could cost yourself money because your cash payments that you run through the insurer are not included in your deductible. They may not let you add them back later since you did not use their negotiated rate. Caveat emptor.