Health insurance, with the tradeoffs named before you pick.

For the self-employed, the between-jobs stretch, early retirees, and families who'd rather not need a spreadsheet to understand a plan. Without a plan through work, you're the one comparing thirty of them on a website, and the number every website leads with is the premium. It's the least useful of the four.

On most health plans the other three are the deductible, what you pay before the plan starts paying its share; coinsurance, the share of each bill that's still yours after that; and the out-of-pocket maximum, the most a year can cost you. A plan that's missing one of those is a different kind of plan, and that's the first thing to ask about. Those numbers decide what a bad year does to you. The premium decides what a good year costs.

The first call starts with your doctors and your prescriptions, because a plan that drops your doctor is expensive at any premium. Then the plans that fit get priced against each other with the gaps named: what each one leaves you paying if something unexpected happens.

Once you pick, your agent handles the application. Through the year they're the number you call about a claim, a confusing bill, or a change at home. At renewal it gets priced again, and you decide whether to stay put.

A health plan is how a five-person shop competes with the bigger employer across town for the same hire. It's also the most confusing thing you'll do as an owner, and the confusion is mostly three things: how much the business contributes, which plan works for a mix of ages and households, and what happens when the renewal letter shows up with an increase.

The contribution is the mechanism. The business picks the plan and decides how much of each premium it covers; employees usually pay the rest through payroll, and that split is most of what the plan costs the business. Insurance companies usually set a minimum, and that's the first thing that gets checked.

Dental and vision usually bundle in cheaply, and employees notice them. At renewal the plan gets priced again and you decide whether to stay put; if a switch makes sense, the paperwork is handled for you.

Most health plans leave adult dental and vision out, which catches people off guard. On their own they're small plans, and they come in more shapes than people expect. The questions to ask on dental are what the plan pays in a year, which is often capped, and whether major work has a waiting period. On vision, what the exam costs you and what the plan puts toward frames or contacts. For a business they add onto a group plan cheaply, and employees notice.

The point either way is not paying for what you won't use, and not skipping what you'll miss when you're sitting in the dentist's chair.