For thrifty consumers, there’s a lot to like in high-deductible health insurance. The plans offer low monthly premiums and those fees fully cover preventive care, including annual physicals, vaccinations, mammograms and colonoscopies, with no co-payments.

The downside is that plan participants must pay the insurers’ negotiated rate for sick visits, medicines, surgeries and other treatments up to a minimum deductible of $1,500 for individuals and $3,000 for families. Sometimes deductibles are much higher.

Let’s keep it civil.

  • The only gap is paying the deductible which is no problem if you have a funded HSA.

    Wouldn’t a fair amount of people *not *have a funded HSA? The savings power of Americans is not so great; it seems logical to me that a good percentage of people choosing low premium/high deductible plans are doing so because they already can’t afford a large monthly expense, not because they’re flush with cash to fund a savings account.

    It sounds like you are able to fully fund your HSA, so it works out great for you, but I’m not convinced that would be the case for most people on these plans.