I loved my previous HMO because I was in a union and the (huge) premium was mostly covered by the company however it's really never that simple. Changing jobs and insurance companies means all of a sudden all of my previous doctors are out of network and now I have to pick and choose which ones are worth sticking with while eating the out-of-network costs and which are replaceable. Multiply that by several family members and it's a nightmare.

Continuing the counterexample, recently my daughter had to be hospitalized literally a month after changing to a PPO. Amazingly, our $175,000 bill ended up costing me just $300 because she was admitted to inpatient care. If I had been on my previous HMO, it likely would have either cost $50k for the out-of-network, out-of-pocket maximum (assuming nothing exempt from that even...) or worse, delayed getting care while attempting to figure out any of that on the spot.