My family has had our High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP) for just under one year, and last month we discovered that what we believed to be an embedded deductible was nothing of the sort.  Huh?  What's an embedded deductible you say?

When shopping for health insurance you'll often see an individual deductible and a family deductible quoted side by side.  In our case the individual deductible was $5,200 and the family deductible was $10,400.  From our reading of the insurance policy, if an individual within my family hit the $5,200, their coverage from that point forward for that person would be at 100%. Warning Will Robinson, WRONG, WRONG, WRONG!!!

There are policies with embedded deductibles that do what I thought mine did, but you've got to be very careful that if that is a need you have, that your policy will actually provide that benefit.  In fact, you really should talk to your insurance agent, and if you don't have one, get one.  They are free and if they are any good, they can steer you clear from this fly trap.

The last thing you want is to hit what you thought was your deductible and find you still have a ways to go before your insurance starts paying.