Open Enrollment Spreadsheet Template Excel Google Sheets | Health Insurance Plan Comparison, HSA FSA Calculator, Benefits Decision Tool

THE CHEAPEST PREMIUM IS NOT THE CHEAPEST PLAN

Open enrollment gives you about three weeks to make a decision worth thousands, using a booklet written by someone who does not want you to compare it to anything.

So most people pick the plan with the smallest number on the payslip. That is the right answer only in a year you barely use it.

This spreadsheet does the arithmetic your HR portal will not. Put in up to five plans, tell it roughly how much care your household expects to use, and it costs each plan properly - premium plus copays plus deductible plus coinsurance, capped at the out-of-pocket maximum - across a healthy year, a normal year and a bad one.

In the worked example already filled in, the answer flips:

- A healthy year, the high-deductible plan wins at $3,668
- A normal year, it loses to the HMO by $1,043
- A bad year, it loses by $1,048
- Picking the wrong one of the three costs up to $2,358

Same three plans. Three different answers. That is the thing a premium comparison can never show you.

WHAT YOU GET

One Excel file, 15 tabs, 1,130 working formulas. It opens finished - sample data is already in it so you can see how every tab behaves before you type a thing.

- Decision Dashboard. The cheapest plan in each scenario, what the choice is worth in dollars, days until your window closes, and any warning you have not read yet.
- Plan Comparison. Five plans side by side, copied straight off the Summary of Benefits and Coverage. It checks each one against the IRS rules for you.
- True Annual Cost. The engine. Three usage scenarios, every plan costed properly, winner highlighted.
- Break-Even. The one question that decides high-deductible against copay: how much care before the cheap premium stops paying for itself. It tells you the crossover in dollars - and warns you when two plans cross over twice, which most comparisons get wrong.
- HSA Planner. Your limit for your tier and year, what is left after employer money, the per-paycheck figure, the tax you get back, and a 30-year projection that correctly stops contributions at 65.
- FSA Planner. Health and Dependent Care, with the current limits, a forfeit warning, an eligible-expense list and a claim tracker.
- Prescription and Provider check. List your drugs and your must-keep doctors. Any plan that drops one is flagged on the comparison table and again on the dashboard.
- Dependents. Who needs covering, and whether one family plan really beats splitting people across two employers.
- Ancillary Benefits. Dental, vision, disability and the rest, priced against what you would actually claim.
- Deadlines. Every date counting down from today, plus a twelve-item document checklist with a readiness score.
- Decision Log. What you chose and why, so next October takes twenty minutes instead of a weekend.
- Limits Reference. Every 2026 and 2027 IRS and HHS figure, each with its source.

THE 2026 AND 2027 NUMBERS ARE ALREADY IN IT

HSA limits, HDHP minimum deductibles, out-of-pocket ceilings, the ACA cost-sharing caps, Health FSA and the Dependent Care FSA cap. Each one sits on its own reference tab next to the source it came from, and every cell is unlocked so you can update it yourself when the figures change.

The 2027 Health FSA limit is marked as projected, because the IRS does not publish it until October or November. We would rather tell you that than let you plan around a number we made up.

WHAT IT STOPS YOU DOING

- Electing more than the IRS allows, in either account
- Forgetting that your employer's HSA contribution counts against your own limit
- Prorating a part-year HSA in the wrong order, which is how people end up owing a 6 percent excise tax every year until they notice
- Funding an HSA and a general-purpose Health FSA in the same year, which you cannot do
- Electing Dependent Care money you will not spend and will forfeit
- Choosing a plan that quietly drops your specialist

HOW IT WORKS

1. Fill in the Setup tab - plan year, coverage tier, pay periods, your tax rates.
2. Enter your plans from each Summary of Benefits and Coverage.
3. Estimate your usage across the three scenarios. Rough is fine.
4. Read the dashboard, check Break-Even, run the prescription check, then log the decision.

Twenty minutes if you have the documents in front of you. The Deadlines tab lists exactly which ones.

COMPATIBILITY

- Microsoft Excel, Windows and Mac, 2016 or later
- Google Sheets - upload it to Drive and open it, everything carries across
- Apple Numbers and LibreOffice Calc
- No add-ons, no macros, no internet connection, no subscription. It is a file, and it is yours.
- Formulas are locked so you cannot break them by accident. Input cells are open. There is no password.

INSTANT DOWNLOAD

The file is available the moment your payment clears. Nothing is posted to you.

A NOTE ON WHAT THIS IS

It is an estimating tool, not advice. It arranges the numbers you give it and does the arithmetic carefully. It cannot read your plan documents, and where it disagrees with them, they are right. There is a disclaimer tab in the file that says so plainly, and it is worth two minutes of your time.

Questions before or after you buy? Message the shop. We answer.

ReadySheetGo - spreadsheets that are finished when you open them.

📗 HOW TO OPEN IN GOOGLE SHEETS (free & easy):
This is one file that works in BOTH Excel and Google Sheets — there's no separate file to find, you just import the download once:
1. Go to sheets.google.com and open a blank spreadsheet
2. Click File ▸ Import ▸ Upload
3. Drag in the .xlsx file you downloaded from this order
4. Choose "Replace spreadsheet" and click Import data
All tabs load as a full Google Sheet saved in your Drive — edit it on any device. (Prefer Excel? Just double-click the file to open.)

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VIDEO TUTORIAL INCLUDED
This template comes with a step-by-step video walkthrough to help you get set up in minutes. Your tutorial link is included with the instant download.