Deductible
Deductibles are typically used to deter the large number of claims that a consumer can be reasonably expected to bear the cost of. By restricting its coverage to events that are significant enough to incur large costs, the insurance firm expects to pay out slightly smaller amounts much less frequently, incurring much higher savings. As a result, insurance premiums are typically cheaper when they involve higher deductibles. For example, health insurance companies offer plans with high premiums and low deductibles, or plans with low premiums and high deductibles. One plan may have a premium of $1,087 a month with a $6,000 deductible, while a competitive plan may have a premium of $877 a month with a $12,700 deductible. The consumer with the $6,000 deductible will have to pay $6,000 in health care costs before the insurance plan pays anything. The consumer with the $12,700 deductible will have to pay $12,700.
Nonqualified deferred compensation
Often, the employee already has income above the wage base ($127,200 in 2017) for purpose of the Old Age, Survivors, Disability Insurance (OASDI) portion of the FICA tax, and won't owe the OASDI portion of the tax. However, the deferred compensation will be still subject to the hospital insurance portion of the FICA tax (referred to as the "HI" portion, or "Medicare tax") because the hospital insurance wage base is currently unlimited. The employee portion of the Medicare tax is 1.45% of wages (and an extra 0.9% for high-earners).