My DH works for a small company and our family plan (Cigna PPO with not great coverage) is $800/month. So its not unheard of. Sorry OP, it sucks.

OP: Thanks, 13:23. Yes, knock on wood I am pretty healthy.

Got the rate for 1+1, it's cheaper. A little less than $400. Still quote a lot.

I am going to go with the employer plan since it's not as outrageous as $700. This is giving me motivation to look for a job with better benefits!

13:23 again. Also of course you must look at coverage and exclusions ... although I personally have not had an issue with this when using ehealthinsurance.com and looking for policies from reputable companies (United, Anthem, Aetna, Kaiser). The coverage, even on the less expensive policies, was the same as a typical employer policy, with the major exception that maternity was not covered (I am in VA). The differences were mainly in deductibles and coinsurance -- higher premium for lower deductible/coinsurance, lower premium for higher deductible/coinsurance. Exclusions were pretty standard: cosmetic surgery, fertility treatment, nursing homes, etc.

The other problem with buying on the open market right now is that come next year, premiums on those policies will likely rise because of the provision of Obamacare that outlaws medical underwriting going into effect. The only reason you can find such cheap policies now is because anyone with any little anything in their medical history gets rejected -- they are cherry-picking only the very healthiest people to insure, which is why they can offer such inexpensive policies and still make money. I support Obamacare, btw, but I still think that premiums on individual policies will of necessity rise in states where medical underwriting is currently practiced.

You may or may not be better off with your employer's policy. You need to look at all the fine print once they give you the pricing for employee + child versus other plans you are looking at in the individual market -- first, what is the deductible? Since you seem not to be a heavy utilizer of health care, this is going to be the most important question since with a deductible higher than $500, you will likely pay for all of your health care in a given year out of pocket (although at the insurer's discounted rate). For people like that, a higher deductible policy with lower premiums makes sense because if you multiply the monthly premium times 12, it is often higher than the deductible minus premiums on a cheaper policy. You just have to make sure you have the deductible amount in savings ready to use if you have an unexpected medical event. plus additional for coinsurance if there is any on your policy -- also check the annual out of pocket maximum so you will know your total exposure in a year, the highest amount you could possibly have to pay.

be very careful (not on the exchanges) but on the current online health insurance market. some of the plans are not true insurance but are only discount plans or can be tricky to compare. some could still have maxes, deductibles, very limited coverage or networks etc.

I'm a single parent with one kid, too. My employer doesn't pay anything toward dependent coverage and only about half of my coverage. So I do the coverage for me at work and buy DD's insurance on my own, which was much cheaper than paying full price with my company's plan.

That said, my DD's CareFirst plan is just going up to $167 a month, no deductible, for one person. It started at about $67 a month eight years ago. I, too, would be concerned the $200 plan isn't going to get you the care you might need at some point.

OP: 09:54, my company has shitty HSA too. Never had high deductible plan before. My employer is saying it's the best thing since slice bread, I am not convinced at all.