Helping wife pick employer’s PPO vs HDHP, planning to have a kid in 2024
Hello,
We’re planning to have a kid next year so doing extra planning around which insurance to pick through her employer. I’ve laid out the relevant info to compare in the picture below:
Basically the total premium cost (net of HSA contribution for HDHP) + out-of-pocket max for both plans works out to:
Cigna/BCBS PPO: $1,747 annual premium + $4,000 OOPM = $5,747
UHC HDHP (Choice Plus): $708 annual premium + $4,600 OOPM = $5,308
Both plans have 20% coinsurance after deductible across carriers and I did not see any differences between the two except for cost of Non-preferred Brand 90 Day prescriptions:
Cigna/BCBS PPO: 25% ($150 min, $200 max)
UHC HDHP (Choice Plus): 25%
But even if this came up as an issue, it seems like we could just ask for the 30 day prescriptions since the coinsurance and min/max for that is the same for both plans.
Since it seems like the plans are essentially identical, to me it looks like the only other thing to check is which doctors are in or out of network? I called one of the top maternity wards in my city today and they told me they were in-network for UHC HDHP. I will call a few more top places, but barring terrible selection of in-network providers with UHC HDHP, it seems like it’s the better plan at $439 less per year?
Anything else I should consider? Thanks in advance!
