Bronze Plan / Pregnancy

We are choosing my wife’s healthcare plan for 2024. She currently has a Bronze plan and I assumed we would upgrade her given we (hope) to get pregnant soon and give birth in 2024.🤞

However with the options she has, the year’s premium + max out of pocket is only $4000 for the Bronze, vs $5500-$6500 for the Silver/Gold/Platinum (plus she can use an HSA to pay that Bronze out of pocket pre-tax).

The example scenarios for childbirth costs on the plans have a similar scenario, Bronze maxing out at $4000 and everything else being higher by about $1500 when premiums and childbirth estimates are put together. Even if the birth is in 2025 Bronze still seems to come out best across 2 years.

So I’m just struggling to understand how the lowest cost / grade plan is the one cheapest for a major event like pregnancy & childbirth… am I missing something critical here?!! Slightly terrified to put her on Bronze and screw this up…!!

submitted by /u/dan-chalk
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