As companies push workers to pay more for their medical care, millions of employees are facing a tough decision, choosing between high premiums and high deductibles.
The choice is this: Pay more every month for peace of mind later, or pay less and run the risk of having higher out-of-pocket costs down the line.
And increasingly, people are doing the math and deciding that the risk is worth it — leaving them responsible for thousands of dollars in medical bills and forcing them to make hard decisions about whether some care is worth it.
In the last five years, the share of employees enrolled in high-deductible plans has more than doubled, to 29 percent, according to a new employer survey from Mercer, a benefits consultant. Since the bulk of Americans receive their coverage through an employer, that means about 50 million people are enrolled in high-deductible plans.
Read the rest of this article from the New York Times here.