Many consumers opt for high-deductible coverage despite risks

Jun 1 2011

USA Today: High-Deductible Insurance Plans Are Gaining Popularity
Last year, Tina Holwin Hodges' healthy family switched to a high-deductible health insurance plan and were able to save $100 a month on their monthly premiums, which seemed like a bargain. Then her daughter Cailee spent three days in the hospital with a viral infection, her daughter Heather went in for a cardiac workup, her husband had hand surgery after being out of work for a year, and she injured her back and couldn't work for three months. Hodges found that her family plan with a $2,400 deductible and a $11,900 maximum on out-of-pocket spending was too much of a burden (Kennedy, 5/30).

The Associated Press: Getting Personal: Feds Pursue Top Execs In Health Care Fraud Cases Previously Settled For Cash
It's getting personal now. In a shift still evolving, federal enforcers are targeting individual executives in health care fraud cases that used to be aimed at impersonal corporations. The new tactic is raising the anxiety level — and risks — for corporate honchos at drug companies, medical device manufacturers, nursing home chains and other major health care enterprises that deal with Medicare and Medicaid (Alonso-Zaldivar, 5/31).