#2. Out of Pocket - is the total amount you will spend In-Network in a worse case, like surgery or other hospitalization in a calendar year. Those small copay's you pay however do not apply to the Deductible or Out of Pocket. The Deductible is not the out of pocket. Most $1000 deductible Copay plans have an Out of Pocket of $3000 because they have an 80% coinsurance. Regardless of plan type, Copay or HSA, an individual's out of pocket is generally $3000 per calendar year.

#3. Coinsurance - the percentage of expenses you share with the insurance carrier on claims. For Copay plans this is usually shown as 80%. Which means Insurance will pay 80%, you pay 20% of claims after deductible until you hit your out of pocket maximum. For HSA's we recommend plans with 100% Coinsurance, which means you pay $0 after you hit your in network deductible.

#4. Rating Style - all companies produce rates based on a collection or pool of the people they insure. They do this in two ways; Form Rating or Community Rating.

Form Rating - Assurant and United Healthcare Golden Rule rate clients based on the form number of the policy they purchased and make a pool from those people who buy that specific plan in a few year time span. These pools get smaller, older, and less healthy in just a few years so your renewal premiums go up much faster than a community rated policy. This allows for lower premiums in the first year or two of the policy, but also leads to much higher renewal rates if you stay with this company for multiple years.

Community Rating - Most other carriers like Humana and Anthem use a community rating system. This means the pool of people being rated is from the entire state or region as you. This means initial premiums may be slightly higher the first year or so but the renewal increases will be smaller on average than a Form Rated policy.