These are health plans that have very low monthly premiums but also have very high deductibles.  They offer an affordable way to protect yourself from the worse-case scenarios such as getting seriously injured or sick.

The idea behind catastrophic health plans is that breaking a bone will not cause you to lose your home in health care cost. Needing a major organ transplant will. The catastrophic plan, despite having a very large deductible, still caps your out-of-pocket maximum so that the major medical issues do not cause bankruptcy.

With a few exceptions, these plans are only available for people under the age of 30.