So when in doubt and with the deadline fast-approaching the way to guarantee the best coverage is to check out and stick with one of the plans with the highest premiums. If it costs a lot, it’s gotta be good, right? The good news is that many of the highest-premium plans are excellent. The bad news is they cost too much for what you get. In many cases you can get similar coverage with the plan’s basic option, which costs much less.

Or if you need to save money only look at the plans with the lowest premiums. What could possibly go wrong, right? What could go wrong is that if you have an unexpected condition or emergency — i.e. the reason people buy insurance in the first place — you might be out of pocket big-time with a low premium plan. Which is why you either gotta shop or maybe continue to shell out big bucks for nothing.

So low premium, good, high premium, better! Correct?

Wrong, says Walton Francis, editor of Consumers’ “Checkbook Guide to Health Plans for Federal Employees.” He will be my guest on today’s Your Turn radio show at 10 a.m. EST on www.federalnewsnetwork.com or 1500 AM in the Washington, D.C., area.