Your Health Care Costs -

[MichealKnight]

Hello Everyone, I am planning on an Early Retirement - -perhaps within this year and I'm trying to forecast my health expenses.

Family of 4 - - Me and DW are 43/31. 2 kids, 10 and 6. Here's what I'm forecasting: (I have colitis, DW asthma. So far that's about it for the fun stuff. Based on family history, I'd guess eventually I'll go in for some sort of angioplasty, etc.

*$1500 per month, health insurance

(Bronze Level ACA plan where I pay 40%.)


*$400 per month, out of pocket expenses.

Perhaps not every month, but setting aside $4,800 per year for co-insurance for eventual colonoscopies, Emergency Rooms, etc etc. Perhaps a few surgeries as the years go by.


*$50 per month, specialist copays.

(2 specialist visits per year, per family member)



*350 per month, Prescription Drugs.

Now, let's say max "out of pocket" for ACA plan is $16,000. I'm obviously hoping we don't hit that. and setting aside $4,800 per year. IF we exceed that - then obviously health has become a problem and we'd cutback on things like dining out or vacations because not croaking tends to be a priority.

I imagine most of you have more life experience than I do so I'm wondering if you think this expense forecast is realistic?

Also if anyone would share your health expenses I'd really love to hear.

Thanks.

 

[Teacher Terry]

We are between 60-65 and between premiums and out of pocket costs average between 10-12k/year. It’s our biggest expense.

 

[Sarah S]

The thing is one fairly small thing that lands you in the ED can blast through that 4800 and more. I had an overnight observation stay for something that fully resolved 3 years ago. I did not have any procedure or mris or ctscan. My deductible was 2000. I believe the total costs at the insurance discount rates were about 5000 and I needed one follow up blood test and ultrasound which would have added another 1600. A hot appendix or a fracture requiring surgical repair would be a lot more. So you could be healthy, enjoying life and just have an expensive interval. Especially with kids

 

[pb4uski]

Monthly premiums are about $500 for a barebones HDHI plan with $12k deductible (for a couple)... over last 7 years claims/medical costs are less than $1k a year.... some years negilgible other years some.

 

[MichaelB]

*$1500 per month, health insurance

(Bronze Level ACA plan where I pay 40%.)

I think anyone considering early retirement should be aware of the unsubsidized price of health insurance and have a “Plan B” in case the subsidy goes away.

 

[Cobra9777]

We are between 60-65 and between premiums and out of pocket costs average between 10-12k/year. It’s our biggest expense.

We're in the same general range, sometimes a bit less. We're both 58 with employer-subsidized retiree health insurance. Our premiums account for about half the total. One is a silver plan, the other is an HSA-eligible HDHP. The rest is out-of-pocket for medical, prescriptions, dental, and vision.

 

[Teacher Terry]

Ours is from our past employer. Still expensive.

 

[NoMoreJob]

I think anyone considering early retirement should be aware of the unsubsidized price of health insurance and have a “Plan B” in case the subsidy goes away.

MichaelB is right. When my wife and I early retired about 15 years ago for both of us we paid about $600/month for excellent coverage with an excellent (nationwide) network and deductible in the low $100's/yr. Now my wife's unsubsidized policy with less generous coverage, a limited (local only) network and $6500/yr deductible is $734/month. The kicker is that this could all change or go away tomorrow....and I mean the the availability of decent private insurance, not just subsidy.

Had we ERd into today's environment I would certainly have given it a great deal more thought and probably delayed our retirement. If we had children depending on our insurance in today's environment there's no way I would retire early.

 

[Winemaker]

Our premiums are now $23,800/year. $10 office copays, $5 prescriptions. Don't know what max OOP is, because we've never hit it.

 

[MRG]

Our unsubsidized premiums gone from 500 monthly to over 2k since 2013. One of the most disturbing trends are the amount of medication they no longer cover. Well it's covered, if you can pass the prior authorization. I took a medication for many years with a $5 copay. I now pay $200 monthly for the medication as I can't pass the prior authorization anymore. They've figured out how to stop paying for 90% of the folks who need it.

 

[MarieIG]

Not retired yet, but (subsidized by DH's union) they will be $1,700 for the family plan pre-Medicare. When we are both on Medicare, the cost will go down. We were instructed to choose parts A and B when that time comes.

 

[HarveyS]

Don't forget about dental and vision. Kids ortho could easily be $10k. Dental for you and DW likely low now, but after age 50 my dental care costs started to increase dramatically. Today for family of 4 my annual dental costs have been about $3000 for the last 4 years. Approx. $2k for me and $1k for DW and kids each year.

 

[Markola]

This is one depressing thread. How the United States ended up with such a warped health care non-system is one of our nation’s greatest failures.

 

[Bamaman]

This is one depressing thread. How the United States ended up with such a warped health care non-system is one of our nation’s greatest failures.

Yea, Our niece was covered by the U.K. National Health System when she came down with uterine cancer. Instead of quick surgery, they had a conservative protocol of a couple rounds of chemo and radiation over a period of a year.

We buried her in Memphis 4 years ago this month--after a 18 month fight.

The worst part is that there are plenty of healthcare professionals in this world that know how to solve our healthcare problems. Let me just say politics just get in the way.

 

[kcowan]

Coverage for our 12 months including 6 months in Mexico for DW and I is $9500 including all copays.

 

[Monterey298sc]

23,000 for us both. 6,000 each deductible. Sucks. We are 59 and DW is 57

 

[street]

200$ a month for both of us through ACA. Another reason lump sum in IRA over pension. No income.

 

[jj]

Unsubsidized private HDHP costs just under $20,000 per year for two adults, 59, 64 and one dependent. I hope to contain healthcare (medical, dental, vision) costs to <$30,000/year. In 2018, with minor surgery and some substantial dental work we reached $38,500. The excess came out of the vacation budget.

Do not underestimate how much insurance premiums increase from your 40s to your 50s and beyond.

Going on Medicare will reduce these costs somewhat.

 

[Livefree]

Wife and I pay $616 per month. Silver Plan. Zero deductible $2250 Our of Pocket each.
We do this by keeping our Taxable income low.

 

[Aerides]

I think anyone considering early retirement should be aware of the unsubsidized price of health insurance and have a “Plan B” in case the subsidy goes away.

This is very important. OP's ER is looking at 20+ years before medicare, so a lot can change between now and then.

Also, OP, everyone's numbers here are going to be meaningless to you unless they are in your same county, as the ACA plans vary dramatically by each. In addition, providers and plans can, and do, change every year. So, looking at 20+ years you should probably have a plan for worst case in your budget. No one here would be surprised if their nice $400 bronze plan this year, is a gone, and the next choice is a $700 plan next year.

As for me, this year we're on a Bronze plan, managing income within the subsidy level, $5k premiums, $6k each OOP max. It's a HD/HSA eligible plan so we can both gain some MAGI benefits by contributing to our HSA plan. We also had to change docs. Staying with the ones we had would have mean a gold plan of about $1500 per month.

 

[Dtail]

The kids dental can get real expensive with braces, etc.
We paid $9,600 last year for 59/58 y.o. and that's with the DGF having around 50 doctor visits over the year.
I manage my MAGI heavily, so helps greatly, but with your young ages, who knows what will be the situation.
Perhaps wait until the end of 2020.

 

[WestUniversity]

We have retirement health benefits through my wife’s former employer. It’s about $8K/year. So far we are pleased with it. Not as good as my former MegaCorp benefits, but close enough...

 

[Unpaintedhuffhines]

Healthcare and the surrounding uncertainty is the #1 reason I'm still working. The benefits I have at mega corp are simply ridiculous. If I had guaranteed insurance at roughly medicare rates, I'd jump ship tomorrow. I might jump ship anyway - it's only about 7 years I'd have to worry about.

 

[mamadogmamacat]

Looks like you are assuming about 27K per year alltogether

seems a bit low for four, especially considering dental and vision as others have mentioned.

perhaps you should calculate another number consisting of: your premiums, what the plan's max out of pocket $ number is plus your $350 for prescriptions which i assume are not included in the out of pocket max plus something realistic for dental and vision care

compare that to the 27k. i expect it will be more

then a third number using what you can find for a non ACA plan, just in case ACA goes away or is changed

Take the biggest of the three numbers into account for your calculations as to when retirement is possible

 

[Carpediem]

I would have 4 years to cover with COBRA and ACA. This thread is making me nervous. I had planned to use some of the cash bucket for 2 of the years in order to get subsidies. Maybe I should plan on 18 mos of COBRA (approx $1100/mth), 2 years of ACA subsidies ($0/mth), and 1 year full cost ACA (approx $1500/mth. (The reason for no subsidies the last year is not to drain the entire cash bucket.)