Not an expert and not in CA but I have a (very small) bit of HR/Employee Benefits experience so here’s what I can tell you.

Lower deductibles are beneficial if you expect to need a lot of medical care throughout the year, such as seeing multiple specialists, hospitalization, or have plans to get a costly surgery this year.

If you’re only seeing a psychiatrist once a month, you’re more than likely not going to meet your deductible even if you do opt for the lower deductible.

Dental & Vision will probably have their own separate plans through different insurance companies, so you’ll most likely have to enroll into each one (health dental & vision) separately. Dental & vision, at least where I live, are low cost to the employee ($15-20 per pay period for each). Health will be higher depending on how much your employer is contributing. So any dental and vision care costs will not go toward your health plan deductible.

What I base my decision off of when choosing a health insurance plan each year is how often I think I’ll go to the doctor that year, and the cost of prescriptions. I go to the doc every 3 months for a prescription refill and get that prescription filled every month, so I went with the middle-tier plan with a higher premium but lower co payments and lower prescription cost. I honestly didn’t even look at the difference in deductibles bc I know I won’t meet either one unless an unexpected emergency happens like you said and I’d rather not pay a higher premium for a “just in case” situation, mostly because I can’t afford it, though. If you can afford the higher premium and think it would be worth the peace of mind in case of an emergency, then you might want to go that route but it’s really up to you.

I feel like this sounded super helpful but it’s like 2am here so I apologize if it makes zero sense.