Can anyone help me understand why I would ever select a PPO when Saver seems sooo much cheaper?

I am super confused by health insurance options. Why would I ever select a PPO plan at these costs? It seems that worst case if I hit the max out-of-pocket, I still save nearly 10k by going with the Saver plan.

I am reaching these numbers by adding up the bi-weekly cost to me, multiplying it by 52, then adding the max out of pocket.

Let's ignore the PPO100. Looking at the PPO90, if I never get sick, it will cost me $16216.72 per year in paycheck contributions. If I get very sick and max it out, it will cost me $19216.72. Looking at the Saver plan, if I never get sick, it will cost me $7777.64. If I get very sick and max it out, it will cost me $12777.64. As both Saver minimum and maximum costs are cheaper than any other plan, I imagine no middle / "in-between costs" are more expensive – it's roughly linear.

What on earth is the advantage to selecting a PPO plan? The only thing I can think of is that people are ok paying more each paycheck in order to have consistent healthcare costs (i.e. pay twice as much each paycheck so that they don't risk a $5K bill in January as they max out the max OOP in a catastrophe).

Another thing that sweetens the Saver option is that my company will contribute $1000 to my HSA. That effectively makes the max OOP $4000.

What am I missing here?

I didn't address deductibles here, as I don't see them impacting the annual + OOP calculation, but they are $3200 for the Saver, none for the PPO100, and $500 for the PPO90. This is for BCBS, is looking in-network, and is the cost for my family (Employee and more than one dependent). Please let me know if I can provide additional information. Thank you for taking the time to help me navigate this!

Plan name Bi-weekly cost Annual cost Max OOP Annual cost + Max OOP Saver 149.57 7777.64 3000 12777.64 PPO100 428.33 22273.16 1500 23773.16 PPO90 311.86 16216.72 5000 19216.72 submitted by /u/ParrotMafia
[comments]