So for the second plan you're saying that you have a doctor visit before you hit the $3k deductible and you're paying co-insurance on that? Might need to double check that. Generally you're going to pay the full-cost of non-emergency or urgent expenses until you hit the deductible. At that point the co-insurance kicks in.

For the first plan, there likely is co-insurance after you reach the deductible as well, but perhaps co-insurance is not as much as the 2nd plan.

In general, I prefer plans with the co-pay since it is a known cost going into a doctor visit, whereas when you don't have a co-pay generally you're on the hook for the full amount until you hit your deductible. The difference is the non-co-pay plans are generally cheaper and at least in my employer they offer a HSA with employer contributions to make it hurt a little less. Best advice I can give you is if you have the records for it is to look at your annual expenses for a given year and try to calculate what you would have owed for each plan when taking into account both what you pay for services and also the premiums for those plans.

For me it made most sense to switch to the co-insurance plan since most years I only have 1-2 doctor visits and otherwise never even get close to hitting my deductible. It was hard to justify the co-pay plan which was more expensive and didn't offer a HSA with employer contributions (our employer is trying to move away from co-pay plans so they pushing the non-co-pay plans). Obviously that's just my experience, for my situation, and with my employer plans which could be much different than yours.

No, on #2 no co-insurance kicks in until the 3 grand is paid, I was not clear on that until today.... So automatically out of pocket up to $3K.

Second plan becomes much like the first plan after $500 reached, turns into an 80/20 deal.

3K co-insurance plan does carry an HSA, but no employer contributions

Problem (mine, not yours) is some years I hit the out of pocket max, especially being active and racing (i.e. 2015 bike accident, got some of that free health care for a while :) ) other years i spend $1000 total. I know, that's insurance for ya

Well, the insurance actuaries have already figured this out to the nat's ass. Probably, from their point of view, both options cost them the same on average. Which means if you are a peak point in the bell curve as an individual, both will cost you the same too.

Your challenge is to figure out which one has a better chance for a lower cost to you. So it would depend on things like how many doctor visits you typically do in a year or if you are in general, more healthcare needy.

Good luck on figuring all that out. We have a similar option where I work to choose from. I eventually just gave up. There are so many nuances to plan options and coverages and how it could potentially turn out for you given the different scenarios and things that can happen.

Sorry, I know I'm not helping any. It is hard to do the what-ifs to figure out once you really get down to it on the details of comparing once you really consider all the possible ways your year could unfold on healthcare needs.

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Basically what my wife says, you're probably gonna end up paying the same anyway so stop stressing and move on!