Unsure of what direction to go.

We currently have insurance through my spouse’s employer. Like everyone else, our premiums have kept going up over the past few years and it is now at a point where for the past 3 years, we are losing income to pay premiums. This open enrollment we were just going to keep our current BCBS coverage, but employer is now only offering Consumer Directed plans. As a result, premiums will go from approx $800/month to $1000-1200/month for a family of 3. The deductible will go from $1000 to $12,000. Out of pocket obviously will also go up.

This is becoming a problem to continue to afford premiums since the “raises” given were less than the increase in premiums. We cannot find a better deal on the marketplace, I suspect due to household income bracket. We are feeling very lost and trapped. Even with the “good” BCBS plan, they were not great at covering things or we just keep getting bills in the mail. I feel like we are literally flushing $1k a month down the toilet.

Our current ideas for moving forward:

Signing up for a PHCS

Dropping insurance completely and setting up a separate savings account that we put what would be his current premium into.

Strategic Divorce

I know we aren’t the only ones struggling, what is everyone else doing to minimize the financial damage? Yes, we have thought about what if a catastrophic event happens. So we have a catastrophic event happen and we are still in hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical debt with insurance. With out insurance I am sure it can reach into the millions. Either way, we can’t pay back 200k OR 2million, so why bother.