Think I'll pull the plug next year at 63. Wild card is health insurance.....

[Floridatennisplayer]

So I will need health insurance for 2 years till Medicare. Hoping Trump care is a good deal. What are the other options? Independent agent or online health quotes?

 

[Sunset]

Nobody knows.

I'll bet now since the market has rocketed up so fast, that this site will be flooded with folks saying they are going to retire since their 401K/IRA, etc has gone up so high.

 

[Hyperborea]

You can use COBRA coverage to get you 18 months of coverage. I retired last year and am using that for health care right now. I can't get coverage as good for less under ACA because I'll make too much this year for any subsidies. By the time the COBRA coverage runs out I'll be out of the US and buying health care cheaply outside the US.

About 10 years ago (before ACA and more reasonable health coverage in the US) I had a coworker who despite having a pretty large stash (early employee at a then and still successful large tech company) couldn't buy coverage because of a pre-existing condition. He was waiting for COBRA distance to Medicare before retiring.

 

[donheff]

About 10 years ago (before ACA and more reasonable health coverage in the US) I had a coworker who despite having a pretty large stash (early employee at a then and still successful large tech company) couldn't buy coverage because of a pre-existing condition. He was waiting for COBRA distance to Medicare before retiring.

The scariest factor for ER types was that even if you found coverage the plan could change or go away and you could find yourself out in the cold. All proposals I have seen for replacing the ACA have at least the concept of non-denial for people who maintain continuous coverage so, if something gets put in place most people with money should be OK. What would worry me would be a failure to arrive at a comprehensive plan in a reasonable time frame leading to insurers bailing from the system leaving some areas with no coverage. If you were stuck in a location like that you could find yourself unable to find any plan that would accept you. If I was nearing ER I would at least wait until I saw what happens in 2017 before bailing and probably wait until I was in COBRA range of Medicare. Sad state of affairs.

 

[Teacher Terry]

Some lawmakers are refusing to vote alone party lines and some will only vote to repeal/replace if there is a new plan and some will only vote to repeal and not replace. So at first I was thinking this was a good thing but then realized that if prices keep escalating then people will drop out, insurance companies will quit offering plans and the ACA will just implode. I find it very sad that people are in t his situation too.

 

[Big_Hitter]

decent article from NYT on this

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/02/...html&eventName=Watching-article-click&referer

 

[Pilot2013]

If I was nearing ER I would at least wait until I saw what happens in 2017 before bailing and probably wait until I was in COBRA range of Medicare. Sad state of affairs.

I guess no one ER'd before ACA?

 

[Big_Hitter]

I guess no one ER'd before ACA?

The Affordable Care Act as Retiree Health Insurance: Implications for Retirement and Social Security Claiming

of course they did - these guys say that ACA didn't materially impact ER but I don't have a full copy of the paper...yet

 

[2017ish]

The Affordable Care Act as Retiree Health Insurance: Implications for Retirement and Social Security Claiming

of course they did - these guys say that ACA didn't materially impact ER but I don't have a full copy of the paper...yet

Thanks, downloaded the pdf for later review.

 

[Ed B]

Our choices for employer subsidized pre-65 retiree health care are as follows:

Same basic coverage as active employees. $1000 deductible per person with 80/20 benefit after deductible. Prescription drugs covered at a good rate/co-pay. Cost is ~$1700/month for family of 2 regardless of age and pre-existing conditions.

The lower level " Advantage +" plan is $1100/month for family of two. $2000 deductible per person then a 60/40 cost share after deductible. Prescription drugs benefit is about the same.

That latter is slightly better than Obamacare bronze plans all around. The higher premium is slightly better than good silver and gold plans on the Obama exchange for my zip code. That said, they all suck. But if i want to ER then I have to budget those costs with expected premium increases each year.

 

[Ed B]

Our choices for employer subsidized pre-65 retiree health care are as follows:

Same basic coverage as active employees. $1000 deductible per person with 80/20 benefit after deductible. Prescription drugs covered at a good rate/co-pay. Cost is ~$1700/month for family of 2 regardless of age and pre-existing conditions.

The lower level " Advantage +" plan is $1100/month for family of two. $2000 deductible per person then a 60/40 cost share after deductible. Prescription drugs benefit is about the same.

That latter is dlightly better than Obamacare bronze plans all around. The higher premium is slightly better than good silver and hold plans on the Obama exchange for my zip code. That said, they all suck. But if i want to ER then I have to budget those costs with expected premium increases each year.

I will add that as an active employee my premium cost for first option is about $500/month. So the retireeversion is only slightly subsidized by megacorp if at all.

 

[Big_Hitter]

does your mega book a retiree medical liability? sometimes called opeb

 

[pb4uski]

I will add that as an active employee my premium cost for first option is about $500/month. So the retireeversion is only slightly subsidized by megacorp if at all.

It is probably not subsidized by your employer and is COBRA which is typically 102% of the employer's cost. If it was retiree health benefits (OPEB as Big Hitter refers to) then it would be available to you for the rest of your life, not just 18 months.

 

[Ed B]

It is probably not subsidized by your employer and is COBRA which is typically 102% of the employer's cost. If it was retiree health benefits (OPEB as Big Hitter refers to) then it would be available to you for the rest of your life, not just 18 months.

Both options are available for the rest of my life. In fact we can drop out and get back [-]at any time[/-] at any subsequent sign-up period during our retirement. It simply makes sense to transition to Medicare +supplement when the time comes.

There is a Cobra option also, but I don't know as much about that.

 

[Yarnstormer]

I'd wait for the cobra window if I were you!

I am not sure you could get independent insurance at age 64 to cover the gap.

 

[GTFan]

decent article from NYT on this

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/02/...html&eventName=Watching-article-click&referer

That article hits home with many ERs here because the ACA removed the 'job lock' the writer refers to (and on balance studies have backed this up). I know I wouldn't have left Megacorp a couple of years ago without it.

Beyond the job lock problem, one of the biggest (and perhaps insurmountable at this point) issues with current health insurance markets is the distortion caused by taxpayer and employer subsidized insurance. Not just because of the tax bennies for employer/employee but also because the employee often never sees the true cost of health care. The ACA didn't fix that issue but at least it provided an alternative.

 

[Sunset]

I guess no one ER'd before ACA?

No problem if you had company insurance coverage in retirement, or felt daring, or moved to Thailand.

 

[Dawg52]

I guess no one ER'd before ACA?

I had a individual policy in hand before I turned in my notice. But if I planned to retire at 63 I would simply wait another 6 months to be covered via COBRA.

 

[Big_Hitter]

That article hits home with many ERs here because the ACA removed the 'job lock' the writer refers to (and on balance studies have backed this up). I know I wouldn't have left Megacorp a couple of years ago without it.

Beyond the job lock problem, one of the biggest (and perhaps insurmountable at this point) issues with current health insurance markets is the distortion caused by taxpayer and employer subsidized insurance. Not just because of the tax bennies for employer/employee but also because the employee often never sees the true cost of health care. The ACA didn't fix that issue but at least it provided an alternative.

well we get Forms 1095-C now that show the ER cost, I think?

 

[LARS]

So I will need health insurance for 2 years till Medicare. Hoping Trump care is a good deal. What are the other options? Independent agent or online health quotes?

With a two year horizon to Medicare I suspect you will have very
little to worry about as there will be a, no doubt, a sunset provision to ACA, which most likely will be 2 years. If you said you had five years to Medicare then that would be a different discussion...

 

[ejman]

I guess no one ER'd before ACA?

I ER'd at the end of 2002 long before ACA. Much to my surprise I found it impossible to buy individual health insurance AT ANY PRICE due to pre existing conditions that to my way of thinking were pretty minor but I tried every single insurance company available in my location and they all rejected us.

What I ended up doing is creating a business just so we could get a "group" plan ( of two - wife and moi). Costco of all places offered that plan - not very good and expensive coverage but it was all I could get. ACA was a lifesaver when it appeared. Sad to see it will probably go away.

 

[Floridatennisplayer]

Interesting, I stopped into Lowes today for some light bulbs. Nice older guy greeted me, I say older...he was 61, younger than me! We got to talking and the subject went to retirement and he stated he works here part time only for the medical benefits which are exceptionally reasonable he said he pays about $250 a month for health insurance it's a great plan. Hum, I might have found my low stress answer for health insurance!

 

[GTFan]

Yep, that might sadly be my plan if the ACA goes away - some reasonable PT job that has insurance, which again brings us back to this insurmountable job lock problem.

Otherwise I'm looking at $1k+ a month for unsubsidized retiree insurance for the wife and I. And that's for a bronze plan.

 

[scrabbler1]

Back in the mid-1990s, my dad retired at 63.5 so he could go on COBRA and maintain uninterrupted coverage until he became of Medicare age (65). My mom was undergoing cancer treatment at the time so uninterrupted coverage was vital to her.