Do Your Homework on Health Insurance

I'm starting a new job in a few months, so health insurance will be a big question to tackle. Here are some of my thoughts on the subject.

Right now we use private health insurance. We have a pretty good policy, but we still have a yearly deductible, copays, and coinsurance. Plus, some of our benefits are somewhat limited.

The company I'm going to work for has a group policy from precisely the same insurer. The big question is whether that policy is better (and/or cheaper) than our current policy.

The company's policy has lower copays, no yearly deductible, and more thorough benefits. However, it will cost us more per month in premiums (not to mention what it will cost the company).

Which is better/cheaper?

What I plan to do is make a spreadsheet that calculates different health care costs that we've paid in the past couple of years. Luckily, we track our expenses with Microsoft Money, so this should be relatively easy. Then I will add in the cost of our current health insurance. This will show the current total cost of health care for us.

Then I will do the same kind-of calculations, trying to project our future health care costs. Our insurance premiums would be higher, but some out-of-pocket costs would be lower. That will tell me what it would cost us to change to the company's group insurance policy.

In the end, I'm hoping that one plan or the other comes out the clear winner. That should make it an easy choice to decide whether or not to switch to the company's policy. I'll definitely be posting the results here, so be sure to check back. I'll also post the template I use to calculate this, so you can try it yourself, if needed.