We had a period of five years where we hit the out-of-pocket max each year due to pregnancy complications, bronchiolitis, febrile seizures, pregnancy complications, newborn hypothermia, infant sleep apnea and surgery, and pregnancy complications. Haha. Good run!

Anyway, if we had been on my company's PPO, the out-of-pocket max would have been $600 less than the HDHP but the premiums would have been $5,165 higher.

On a total basis we would have paid $4,565 more under the traditional plan during those years. Yes, we had to pay up front for the first pregnancy in that string because it was February, but hospitals will generally allow for a payment plan and we were able to put funds away to max out an HSA the rest of that year and continued to so each year so then we used the HSA to pay for each year's expenses the subsequent year. Now that we're past that string, we've had 1.5 good years and the HSA is up to $17k. Well over the $7,900 HDHP max and most of the funding comes from the difference in premiums alone.