When dealing with Affordable Care Act (ACA) policies, once you have met the annual deductible, co-pays, pharmacy, and co-insurance, you have reached the maximum amount of money you will spend on medical care in a given year. Note that your monthly premium is not included in the maximum out of pocket. Once the max out of pocket is met the insurer pays 100% of remaining in-network claims for the year.
Medicare policies treat medical care and pharmacy related bills separately.
Short term health insurance policies typically do not include the deductible in the listed maximum out of pocket. In other words, you must add the deductible amount to the maximum out of pocket listed on a particular short term plan to know your true financial exposure in a given time frame.
The max out of pocket figure on ACA plans is the most important number, not the deductible, co-pay, or co-insurance amounts. It is always best to know the worst case scenario number to better judge which plan to buy in the first place. The higher the max out of pocket figure, the lower the premium.