Getting health insurance without spending an arm and a leg

Stealth startup Wesabe's blog has a good analysis for how to keep health insurance costs down. Health insurance is a bit of a nightmare to understand with many esoteric terms that you never come across ordinarily. Here's a good glossary if you need it.

Wesabe has put together a useful Google Spreadsheet that compares three possible scenarios and their impact on insurance costs:

The good life: how much would each plan cost me if I had no health expenses?
A moderately bad year: how about if I had $2,500 in expenses?
Hit by a bus: finally, what if I had a big disaster, and had $25,000 in expenses?

He finds that taking the higher deductible plan is sometimes advisable.

How does my $1,500-deductible plan compare to the $500-deductible plan? In “the good life” scenario, by taking the higher deductible, I’ll save $888 over the next year. If I have a “moderately bad year,” I’ll still save $118 over the year. Things only work out worse for me if I get “hit by a bus” — but even in that case, I only lose $112.

Getting health insurance without spending, ahem, an arm and a leg

Labels: Technology