retirement coming, health insurance?

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gips
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retirement coming, health insurance?

Post by gips »

Another two years or so until retirement, where do people go for health insurance? obama care?

tia,
LeeMKE
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Re: retirement coming, health insurance?

Post by LeeMKE »

What is your age?

Medicare starts at 65 and that's probably what everyone uses after 65.
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midareff
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Re: retirement coming, health insurance?

Post by midareff »

Medicare + AARP United Supplement for me.
Topic Author
gips
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Re: retirement coming, health insurance?

Post by gips »

I'll be 60 at retirement.
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Toons
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Re: retirement coming, health insurance?

Post by Toons »

Using wifes retiree health insurance through Aetna,I will be using Medicare later this year.
762.00 per month currently 2 people :happy
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sans souliers
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Re: retirement coming, health insurance?

Post by sans souliers »

Retired in March, 2014 -- age 60. For the months of April through December, I continued coverage through COBRA -- monthly cost $498. For this year 2015, I got a bronze health plan through CT healthcare access site -- monthly cost $496.
A few years ago (2009, before ACA), a co-worker told me he had shopped around and got a lowball monthly figure of $740 - I had no comparisons for it, but I sure wasn't going to retire when I did if that figure was a best buy.
Sometimes pessimism leaves me pretty well prepared for when things don't go my way, and pleasantly surprised when they do.
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GerryL
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Re: retirement coming, health insurance?

Post by GerryL »

Years ago I put off thinking about early (pre-65) retirement when I realized that health insurance would eat up too much of my savings -- if I could even get a policy. (Glad I gave up the idea, because the target date would have been October 2008.) I predicted that we would finally get some sort of universal coverage solution just as I became Medicare eligible. I was right on target: I became Medicare eligible just as the health insurance exchanges opened in 2013. The Affordable Care Act is far from perfect, but at least you now have an option that could enable you to maintain healthcare coverage.
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fandango
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Re: retirement coming, health insurance?

Post by fandango »

You can look at Obamacare or a private market policy. Either way (with deductibles, co-pays, and premiums), you are probably looking at $500 to $600 per person per month.

Medicare (Medicare, Medigap, and Rx Plan) runs one person about $300 per month.
dave_m_
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Re: retirement coming, health insurance?

Post by dave_m_ »

If you are close to Medicare age, the Obamacare subsidies are probably fairly substantial if you qualify for them. At that age the phase out is a pretty steep cliff, so it may be worth staying under income limit if you are anywhere near it.
LeeMKE
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Re: retirement coming, health insurance?

Post by LeeMKE »

Obamacare is worth checking out if your AGI can get beneath the cut off for credit ($62,400 for two people). http://www.healthcare.gov

Otherwise I always bought my coverage at http://www.ehealthinsurance.com It was recommended by an agent in another state who couldn't help me because of State licensing restrictions.
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TheGreyingDuke
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Re: retirement coming, health insurance?

Post by TheGreyingDuke »

I am on Medicare, my wife has a few years to go. We bought her a high deductible on the Vermont exchange, $348 a month with dental.
"Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race." H.G. Wells
john94549
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Re: retirement coming, health insurance?

Post by john94549 »

Absolutely check out MDVip network MDs who take Medicare. My wife loves it, her doctor, you name it. A few bucks a year, but my wife raves about it. I have Kaiser Senior Advantage. That's pretty good, too.
denovo
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Re: retirement coming, health insurance?

Post by denovo »

fandango wrote:You can look at Obamacare or a private market policy. Either way (with deductibles, co-pays, and premiums), you are probably looking at $500 to $600 per person per month.

There is no Obamacare "or" private market policy. Aside for the Medicaid expansion for low-income people Obamacare (at healthcare.gov or a state website) is an exchange where you can compare and purchase private policies. You can still buy policies direct from the insurer but that is pointless and possibly harmful because those policies have to be compliant with "Obamcare" and you are only eligible for subsidies if you use the exchange.
"Don't trust everything you read on the Internet"- Abraham Lincoln
davebarnes
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it is complicated

Post by davebarnes »

Nothing is simple via à vis health insurance in the USA.
First - HMO or PPO? This is about preferences and availability.
Second - low deductible or high + HSA? This is about your current health and tolerance for risk.

Have fun with the research.
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Planner
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Re: retirement coming, health insurance?

Post by Planner »

A health care sharing ministry might be a good option.
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MN-Investor
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Re: retirement coming, health insurance?

Post by MN-Investor »

denovo wrote: You can still buy policies direct from the insurer but that is pointless and possibly harmful because those policies have to be compliant with "Obamcare" and you are only eligible for subsidies if you use the exchange.
Pardon me, but that's a remarkably ignorant and unhelpful comment.

The Affordable Care Act ensured that ALL health insurance plans met a certain minimum standard. Two of those standards are that pre-existing conditions could not be considered and that there would be a maximum out of pocket amount. Thank God! That means that my husband can retire (age 60) and we won't have to worry about being denied health insurance or worry about going bankrupt because of a medical catastrophe.

Insurance companies had the choice as to whether or not to put their policies on the exchanges. In order to hold down costs, some of those policies offered on the exchanges limit the doctors or clinics or hospitals available in their network. I imagine that policies offered through the companies but not available on the exchanges may cost more, but may offer access to a wider network or doctors, clinics, and hospitals.

For those of us who will not qualify for the subsidies and who are willing and able to pay a bit more for a wider choice of doctors and hospitals, a policy outside of the exchanges may be the perfect option.
The key to success - Save early, save often, invest well.
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dodecahedron
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Re: retirement coming, health insurance?

Post by dodecahedron »

dave_m_ wrote:If you are close to Medicare age, the Obamacare subsidies are probably fairly substantial if you qualify for them. At that age the phase out is a pretty steep cliff, so it may be worth staying under income limit if you are anywhere near it.
Depends on your state. In NY, ACA premiums do not vary by age so subsidies also do not vary by age. Even "unsubsidized" older purchasers (i.e., those above 400% FPL) are getting an actuarially good deal on a NY ACA plan because the state regulation prohibiting age-adjusting premiums means that younger policyholders cross-subsidize older ones.
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obgyn65
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Re: retirement coming, health insurance?

Post by obgyn65 »

I am retiring this year from my full time position, at age 50, but switching to a part time position to see patients. This part time position comes with healthcare insurance, so I will take it. I will be using COBRA during the few weeks of transition.
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magellan
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Re: retirement coming, health insurance?

Post by magellan »

MN-Investor wrote:For those of us who will not qualify for the subsidies and who are willing and able to pay a bit more for a wider choice of doctors and hospitals, a policy outside of the exchanges may be the perfect option.
Policies outside of the exchange may offer a wider choice of doctors, but sometimes not. In many states, the off-exchange choices are actually more limited than on-exchange offerings. This is very state specific and very much a case where consumer due diligence is a must. Also, don't trust sites like ehealthinsurance to be comprehensive. Often they're not. Always visit the website of each insurer offering policies in your state to see their full list of choices. You can find all the insurance companies offering policies in your state by looking on healthcare.gov AND checking out sites like ehealthinsurance.

The bottom line - Always investigate all policies offered in your state, both on and off the exchange. Definitely pay very close attention to the provider networks and drug formularies, even among different policies offered by the same provider.
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magellan
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Re: retirement coming, health insurance?

Post by magellan »

Here's an example from New York about how convoluted BCBS made things by creating three different names for one identical network:
http://www.insurancesuffolk.com/blog/em ... -obamacare

Here's another case of the same thing in CA:
http://napavalleyregister.com/business/ ... 963f4.html

Finally, I just checked ehealthinsurance to see what offerings they show my state. Out of 4 companies offering policies, only one is represented on ehealthinsurance. Unfortunately, the only policies listed are HMOs (no out of network coverage at all) with an extremely limited provider network. In my state, you'll do best skipping ehealthinsurance entirely. They offer a tiny subset of what's available.

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rixer
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Re: retirement coming, health insurance?

Post by rixer »

The wife just retired and isn't yet eligible for medicare. She was able to get ins. through the AHA with subsidies. The Silver Plan seems to be best for the money.
TheGreyingDuke
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Re: retirement coming, health insurance?

Post by TheGreyingDuke »

rixer wrote:The wife just retired and isn't yet eligible for medicare. She was able to get ins. through the AHA with subsidies. The Silver Plan seems to be best for the money.
As is often said around here, buy as much insurance as you need, no more. There is no one plan that is best for everyone, depends on your ability to self-insure, health status, etc. In my case, we chose high deductible plans (me for Medigap, my wife for a state-exchange policy) that seems "best" for us.
"Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race." H.G. Wells
J295
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Re: retirement coming, health insurance?

Post by J295 »

We have a high deductible plan purchased through the Exchange. We fully fund our HSA and pay medical expenses with funds other than the HSA (thus allowing the HSA to grow tax free for ultimate withdrawal years down the road). Fortunately, right now I have some self employment income so the premium payments are deductible and I can fund a solo 401k (so if you can generate some self employment income you may find some nice value from a gross and net perspective).

I didn't read all of the prior posts, but if it hasn't been mentioned check out the kaiser subsidy calculator for possible credits under the ACA.

Good luck.
tbradnc
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Re: retirement coming, health insurance?

Post by tbradnc »

denovo wrote:
fandango wrote:You can look at Obamacare or a private market policy. Either way (with deductibles, co-pays, and premiums), you are probably looking at $500 to $600 per person per month.

There is no Obamacare "or" private market policy. Aside for the Medicaid expansion for low-income people Obamacare (at healthcare.gov or a state website) is an exchange where you can compare and purchase private policies. You can still buy policies direct from the insurer but that is pointless and possibly harmful because those policies have to be compliant with "Obamcare" and you are only eligible for subsidies if you use the exchange.
Not sure I agree with this. I bought our family a policy directly from the insurer.

For one thing, all of the plans on the federal exchange have Narrow/Skinny networks - meaning that the number of providers is limited. Buying directly from BC/BS allowed me to purchase a "Broad" network plan which has a larger provider network.

Also, we did not qualify for a subsidy so there was no advantage to purchase from the federal exchange anyway - so what's the point?
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magellan
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Re: retirement coming, health insurance?

Post by magellan »

tbradnc wrote:For one thing, all of the plans on the federal exchange have Narrow/Skinny networks - meaning that the number of providers is limited. Buying directly from BC/BS allowed me to purchase a "Broad" network plan which has a larger provider network.
Again, this is very state specific. In my state, the plans with the best networks ARE offered on the exchange. Meanwhile, ehealthinsurance.com only shows plans from the insurer with worst network. Go figure!

OTOH, after browsing on healthcare.gov, I also chose to buy my coverage directly through the insurer even though I could have gotten it on the exchange. It just didn't seem smart to insert healthcare.gov into my insurance buying process unnecessarily.

Last year, I did use healthcare.gov because Anthem's website had a bug that caused it to crash during the application process (It was a fantastic crash that even included a server side java dump). Anyhow, I found it ironic that last year I could only get insurance using the much-maligned healthcare.gov website because the private insurer's website kept crashing. This year I switched insurers and the new company's website handled my online application without a problem.
gerrym51
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Re: retirement coming, health insurance?

Post by gerrym51 »

i have an obamacare plan.i get no subsidy. the plan i have is a silver plan but is not the least expensive silver plan. there were 6 silver plans less expensive. mine has an excellent network but it does cost more. the more expensive the plan -in it's color catagory the better the network. you get what you payfor
Sagenick48
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Re: retirement coming, health insurance?

Post by Sagenick48 »

I did this before the ACA, and got a low cost private plan through BCBS, Blue Cross...., since I was in a very high cost group I actually saved money versus what Cobra coverage would be, about 120% less. Don't assume that group insurance coverage is a bargain, they typically have very high usage rates. If you have some self employment income you can also look at getting a deduction form gross income, the best kind of deduction, and setting up an HSA plan.
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