High-Deductible Health Plan - HDHP

See: Deductible. And no, this isn't about the green stuff that is fast being made legal in Jamaica and pretty much every state in America.

A high deductible just implies that the person who is insured pays the first grand, 5 grand, 10 grand...of a given health care event's bill. The higher the deductible, generally speaking, the lower the insurance premium that the insured must pay.

Why? Well, from the insurance company's perspective, if an individual is out of pocket a lot of money, and only then calls in the insurance company cavalry, then it's likely the disease or problem is real, not faked, and that whatever treatment is, in fact, needed.

In many policies, the insured, beyond their deductible, then pays like 10% or 20% or so of all remaining bills, so that the pain is shared (only the financial one, though) between insurer and insured, making it all the more likely that self-policing of the doctor bills is being done in a financially-respectful manner.

There was no need for the gold-lined Kleenex boxes, in fact. The patient in these policies can just use the back of the doc's shirt. Or whatever.