Hi Bruce,
I have now got a bit more information from MHS on this.
Free plans are not included with any digital editions as the plan is part of the Plans Service Range and if it were to be distributed in PDF form it could be easily pirated and MHS would potentially lose sales. Of course scanning the hard copy is also possible but the size and copyright notice thereon means that it would be quite expensive and most print shops would decline to supply a PDF.
The price of the digital edition subscription reflects this but if a copy of the plan is wanted then it is possible to order a hard copy of the magazine for the price of the magazine and not the (usually higher) price of the plan on its own. If only one or two plans are wanted per year this will still be cheaper than taking out a full subscription.
Hope this helps but if you want a fuller explanation then get in touch with Customer Services.
Regards,
Colin