Yeah, spouse plans are great, _if_ they are significantly better/cheaper. I'm a single dude who doesn't have a ton of health problems, but I see middle age on the horizon and I know I'm going to start going to the doctor more.

FSA is a good option for for reducing total costs -- if you're ok preallocating / can predict your health care costs for a year. Which I don't think most people can.

Perhaps there's an opportunity for someone to improve transparency here w/r/t job hunting. I'm not sure I would have changed my decision about where I was going to work -- but it would have been nice to know what my options were.