MOVING GEEKS . SILICON VALLEY: Where to get a health insurance, how does it work and how much is it?

Tech companies often provide employees with a subsidized or free health insurance (also referred to as 'health plan' or as part of your 'benefits')
Many plans work the following way (simplified, might also be different for your plan):

Whenever you get your salary, your employer contributes a certain (often undisclosed) amount to your health plan and your pay your part by automatic deduction from your salary ('premium' - in my case around 80 USD/2 weeks, covering me and my wife)
You have to pay all expenses up to a certain yearly limit ('deductible'), e.g. 2,500 USD, afterwards your insurance pays everything above or it requires cost sharing (see below)
These are the options in case the insurance requires 'cost sharing' (e.g. if you have met your deductible, in some cases also before):

You might have to pay for a certain percentage of your medical services ('co-insurance'), e.g. 20% of all expenses
You might have to pay a flat amount for a certain service ('copay),
e.g. 20 USD for each visit to a doctor

But some services will always be paid by the insurance (e.g. preventive checkups), no matter if you have already met your deductible or not
The overall amount you have to pay per year (deductible + co-insurance + copay) is usually limited ('out-of-pocket limit')
Your insurance company most likely has a network of preferred doctors and hospitals ('in-network providers'), usually their services cost you less, than services by health providers outside of it ('out-of-network providers'), you might even have to pay the latter completely on your own
Your health insurance might enable you to divert tax-free money from your paycheck to a 'Health Savings Account' for health-related expense. It cannot be spend for anything else, but it is rolled over from year to year (this is the difference to 'Flexible Spending Accounts' other plans offer)

MOVING GEEKS . SILICON VALLEY