If you get health insurance from your employer, you have to make decision every year about which coverage to choose.
So here is a warning: If you are simply sticking with an old plan with a low deductible, that may well be a wrong and costly choice.
You might wonder how anyone could say that choosing one plan over another is “wrong.” Surely such a choice depends on personal preferences about doctors, premiums, deductibles and other factors. And that’s all true.
But the mistake I am referring to is different. Because of human quirks, lack of understanding and overly complicated plans, many people are paying more without getting anything extra in return.
Economists have a term for a situation like this, where one option is better than another under any circumstances, dominance. And that is what we see in many workplaces: The cheaper health care plan, at every level of medical spending, often has a higher deductible — a higher spending hurdle that must be reached before reimbursements begin.
