Between FIRE and 65 paid healthcare options.

[Audie Murphy]

Please share. Anyone between retirement and age 65 your paid out of pocket HC experiences. I am not interested in the provided HC stories. Good for you. I am interested in learning who is doing what and how much it costs annually to cover you and you spouse. Sorry is this is redundant but I have searched back a ways and have not found this discussion. Thanks for any and all information shared.

 

[RunningBum]

Some years only my health care premiums, which most years have been subsidized through ACA; other years my premiums plus the policy out of pocket max; and most years somewhere in between. Your policy isn't likely to be the same as mine, nor is your health, so I'm not sure what getting more detailed will help.

 

[Audie Murphy]

I am curious what the actual costs are for budgeting purposes. Just the premiums. Extras are an individual expense.

 

[Dtail]

Well, I am using the ACA coverage through Florida Blue and am paying 64 premium monthly with 1440 OOP costs. This is with an MAGI of 24k.
My DGF is already on SSDI and thus is covered through Medicare.

 

[RunningBum]

And I'm telling you that yours aren't going to be the same as mine so giving you my numbers won't help. Neither will anyone else's.

Go to healthcare.gov and look at the options for your location, age, etc. You can see what the current policy premiums are, calculate your subsidy if you qualify, and see what your out of pocket maximum is. You can decide for yourself whether to budget for the max or something less based on your health. That's a much much better way to estimate your costs for your budget.

Then you've got to guess what happens once you FIRE. Will the subsidy stay in place? Will there be a new system? Will costs keep soaring?

 

[Audie Murphy]

Well, I am using the ACA coverage through Florida Blue and am paying 64 premium monthly with 1440 OOP costs. This is with an MAGI of 24k.
My DGF is already on SSDI and thus is covered through Medicare.

Wow that is $17,280 annually. I am curious to see who all is doing what and what is the norm.

Thank you!

 

[RunningBum]

Well, I am using the ACA coverage through Florida Blue and am paying 64 premium monthly with 1440 OOP costs. This is with an MAGI of 24k.
My DGF is already on SSDI and thus is covered through Medicare.

Wow that is $17,280 annually. I am curious to see who all is doing what and what is the norm.

Thank you!

Um, no it's not. 64*12 + 1440 ANNUAL OOP costs is $2208.

 

[joeea]

I am interested in learning who is doing what and how much it costs annually to cover you and you spouse.

We use subsidized ACA plans. They have been a lot cheaper than I expected - cheaper than when we got healthcare through my employer. Clearly that depends on the locale in which you reside and your income, though.

In MA, we most recently paid $264/month in premiums for the two of us. Out of pocket was usually $0, or no more than a few $100. I went through more than a year of cancer treatments and paid a few $22 co-pays and nothing else.
Now that we are in ME, we are paying $349/month for premiums.

Both good states.

Note: Your Mileage Will Vary. You'll need to find out for yourself, in your locale, with your income, with your plan choices, copays, deductibles, etc. Only then will you have any real idea what you will pay. You simply will not be able to take a guess based on what people report here. You could go to healthcare.gov and "test drive" it yourself to see what it comes up with today.

 

[Audie Murphy]

Um, no it's not. 64*12 + 1440 ANNUAL OOP costs is $2208.

That is a huge difference.

I went to healthcare.gov but I would have to answer a bunch of questions and lie since I already have employer provided insurance and will until retirement or termination. Please share your cost experiences here.

There are also the healthcare sharing programs. Is anyone using that method successfully?

 

[COcheesehead]

I am pulling the ripcord next year at age 57. I researched healthcare options including talking to some brokers. Based on my situation, I can get coverage for between $400 - $2100/ month depending on deductions and coverage.

 

[Audie Murphy]

We use subsidized ACA plans. They have been a lot cheaper than I expected - cheaper than when we got healthcare through my employer. Clearly that depends on the locale in which you reside and your income, though.

In MA, we most recently paid $264/month for the two of us.
Now that we are in ME, we are paying $349/month.

Both good states.

Note: Your Mileage Will Vary. You'll need to find out for yourself, in your locale, with your income, with your plan choices. Only then will you have any real idea what you will pay.

Under 4K/year that sounds not bad at all. I hope more are getting by with this amount.

 

[Dtail]

Um, no it's not. 64*12 + 1440 ANNUAL OOP costs is $2208.

Yes that is correct.

 

[joeea]

Under 4K/year that sounds not bad at all. I hope more are getting by with this amount.

I guarantee that things are different in Dublin.

 

[Dtail]

That is a huge difference.

I went to healthcare.gov but I would have to answer a bunch of questions and lie since I already have employer provided insurance and will until retirement or termination. Please share your cost experiences here.

There are also the healthcare sharing programs. Is anyone using that method successfully?

Yep 2208 responded in a different post.
The differences state to state and even zip code to zip code can vary greatly.
Central and South Florida in general has great medical access and coverage if one can keep their MAGI reasonably low.

 

[jjflyman]

My DW is ER at the end of August. We will start ACA coverage in September. We are going to show about $50K in MAGI this year and will get coverage for Aprox $70 a month with a hight deductible plan. Next year we will show less MAGI and will choose a plan for next year in open enrollment.
The plans we could have picked to finish out this year ranged from $0 to around $500 a month or more from the exchange.

 

[jjflyman]

That is a huge difference.

I went to healthcare.gov but I would have to answer a bunch of questions and lie since I already have employer provided insurance and will until retirement or termination. Please share your cost experiences here.

There are also the healthcare sharing programs. Is anyone using that method successfully?

You can browse plans and only give basic info to get aprox costs. You don't need to give any personal info

 

[dm]

I’m 62 and my wife is 58. We are currently paying $1,550 per month with a $2000 deductible. Our rates went up a little over $100 per month this year.

That is $18,600 per year in after tax money. No subsidy’s for us.

We live in Florida if it makes any difference. We’ve been paying for our own insurance for around 10 years. I think it was around $14,000 per year when we started. So no big increases over the years.

 

[Carol1862]

Paying $975 a month, $12,000 deductible. BCBS. Counting the months till MC!!

 

[jimbee]

That is a huge difference.

I went to healthcare.gov but I would have to answer a bunch of questions and lie since I already have employer provided insurance and will until retirement or termination. Please share your cost experiences here.

There are also the healthcare sharing programs. Is anyone using that method successfully?

Mr. Murphy, go here to check plans using only basic household information.
https://www.healthcare.gov/see-plans/

 

[RunningBum]

I've paid between $2000 and $12,000 since being retired. I have a friend who does not qualify for a subsidy and they pay $1500 a month, or $18,000/yr in premiums alone, not to mention any out of pocket costs. Now, does that help you? Budget somewhere between $2000 and $20,000.

You don't have to submit any false information to get estimations on healthcare.gov. You just enter whatever information would apply when you're retired, and quit before actually applying.

 

[Audie Murphy]

Thank you everyone. I looked at ACA and will range from ~17K to ~21K from bronze to gold. Are there other options out there now? Anyone else want to chime in?

 

[Audie Murphy]

I guarantee that things are different in Dublin.

Dublin, Virginia...not Ireland.

 

[EastWest Gal]

Cobra is costing $1300/month for two of us. Insurance through healthcare.gov would be about $1900/month in PA. We aren’t eligible for subsidies.

There aren’t a lot of other options, other than faith-based medi-share type “insurance”. You can browse websites of insurance companies but their similarly priced with insurance on the exchanges. If you qualify for subsidies, you will pay a lot less.

 

[SteveNU]

We're also 62 & 58 paying around $1550 a month premium with a $5600 per person deductible. My wife max's out her OOP every year. I've hit mine two out of the last six years. So we're running about $25-$30k per year. Thankfully I do get a retiree health care subsidy of $13k per year right now.

 

[MichaelB]

Thank you everyone. I looked at ACA and will range from ~17K to ~21K from bronze to gold. Are there other options out there now? Anyone else want to chime in?

The Kaiser Foundation does an annual survey, the most recent 10/18, and reports the average cost for employer provided health insurance for family coverage is $19972. Coinsurance would be additional. The range you posted, $17k - $21k, sounds about right for premiums for individual family coverage, coinsurance would be additive. This is for ACA compliant comprehensive health insurance coverage.

The total cost can typically be reduced two ways. One is an income based subsidy, which many here obtain. The only other way to lower the cost is to reduce the coverage. There are a few options for reduced coverage policies, such as short term policies. It’s important to be understand exactly what coverage is included when a policy is not ACA compliant.

KFF survey here https://www.kff.org/report-section/2018-employer-health-benefits-survey-summary-of-findings/