Our open enrollment is starting. I did some math on the HSA option.
Background: our kids are double covered. My husband's health insurance is HSA with HDHP. The company puts some of the money into the HSA for you, and he makes up the rest. Otherwise, there are no premiums. Our family is covered.
My company health insurance has HSA, HMO, and PPO options.
For a few years, I declined coverage and we went with husband's HSA. Except we used my coverage for vision and dental (which his company does not offer).
Four years ago, I found out I was pregnant right before open enrollment, and signed up for the HMO for myself. When my baby was born, I added the children.
By my calculations, the HMO is a better deal and a bit safer. Last year, my premiums for the kids were around $1200. We only "used" about $830 of care, based on the EOBs (this is for the children only). However I decided to go back one year and look there. A single visit to the ER was $1300.
For sure the HMO was the better deal when I gave birth ($14k) and when my infant son had surgery ($20-25k).
From my friends' experiences, HSAs work if you need very little care, or a lot of care. If you are just having routine checkups, which are covered? They are great.
If you end up with a lot of care and hit the out of pocket max? They can also be great.
My coworker, however, switched last year. His medications went from $50 to $500 a month from PPO to HSA. In my experience, drug coverage on HSAs are the pits. (I had bronchitis a couple of years ago, and went to get 2 prescriptions. I handed over my two insurance cards. The pharm tech came back with "this one is great, and this one sucks". HSA sucks.)
I've decided to continue my HMO coverage. Partially because my kids are at the age of possible broken bones, and I'm at the age of needing physical therapy for knees, hips, back, whatever. (Though I have decreased the amount of crazy exercise.)
