What do you pay for healthcare premiums

[LarryG]

$1370.96 per month for wife and I through Megacorp "retiree insurance" (i.e. it's not subsidized but I'm allowed to buy through their group plans). High deductible PPO with HSA, deductible is $3200. No dental. I'm 58 and wife is 54.

 

[SJ1_]

So far I got everybody beat by a mile.

$289 for 2 people (state of GA)

At one point there was a notice about medicare supplement going up 775% but since I am 62 I did not really look into it. The official 2015 rates have not been released the last time i looked.

They try to keep the payments down by cutting benefits.

we have not gotten COLA for years and do not see any in the near future.

 

[23Red]

Military

My wife and I, both now 35 but retired at 33, have free coverage through the VA (I clock a 90% rating) but we also pay for the military Tricare Prime as a backup. It's $555/year, so $46/month, for full family coverage.

 

[utrecht]

$1370.96 per month for wife and I through Megacorp "retiree insurance" (i.e. it's not subsidized but I'm allowed to buy through their group plans). High deductible PPO with HSA, deductible is $3200. No dental. I'm 58 and wife is 54.

DW and I are retiring in Jan and our retiree rates are very high as yours are. Here's my question to you because we are in the same boat. Why are you staying with your retiree insurance when you can clearly see that rates are cheaper on the open market? What benefit do you get for "buying thru their group plan"?

 

[John Galt III]

$1400 a month for two (late 50s),4K deductible. Welcome to Boston, highest rates in the nation. I do have to add that right now we are paying nothing, we are on Medicaid, as they could not process our application due to website issues. Back to 1400 a month in January. BTW - Medicaid is AWFUL.

BellBarbara,

Why was Medicaid so awful? I currently have a subsidized Silver plan, but was thinking about switching to Medicaid, in Pa.

Thanks

 

[John Galt III]

$24 per month for one person. Subsidized Silver plan.

 

[ripper1]

1668 retiree medical for family of 3
108 retiree dental
$4,000 deductible
$6,000 out of pocket limit

Wow, runner, and I thought I had it rough. It seems like these rates are all over the map. I told my wife healthcare was going to be the wild card when I retired. It is something early retirees have to deal with prior age 65. I remember when I first started with city of Chicago in 1980 as a single person I was paying a token 2.35 a paycheck. Of course it went up quite a bit as I was there longer and got married.

 

[MichaelB]

Here's the latest KFF survey of employer healthcare costs, hot off the presses. (here, pdf here)

Large group employer sponsored is how most get their health care coverage. Most of the cost is still covered by the employers, but they have frozen their healthcare outlay by passing the increases to the employees via greater premium share together with higher deductibles.

The average family premium is estimated to be $16834 for 2014.

 

[Golden sunsets]

DH 67, me 65

Medicare Premium $142.90 for each of us (includes income related adjustment)
BCBS Federal Retiree Coverage $309.30 (picks up all deductibles and copays- so no out of pocket costs)
dental $26.69/mo
Vision $26.5/mo

Total $648.64/mo.


Only out of pocket costs are for co-pay portion of filings or crowns and portion of eyewear cost that is not covered by vision insurance. No Prescription costs as husband is 100% VA rated and receives all meds free. I am covered by Champ VA for which their is no premium as the wife of a 100% rated husband, and prescription copays are reimbursed by Champ.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

Just under $200 a month for an ACA family plan, with us and young adult kids still on our plan, Bronze HSA. The $200 is a tax deductible business expense for us since we dropped our hours but still kept our small businesses going.

 

[swakyaby]

For my California Blue Shield PPO with a $500 deductible per person, I pay 1691.82 per month for my husband (57) and I (53). It's a group rate, so individual plan would be higher. Our dental is $59.92 per month, and our Vision is $13.29 per month. I continue working just so I can afford health care!

 

[Bikerdude]

Medicare - $104.00
Retiree supplemental medical, drug & dental Ins. - $211.00

Total = $315.00/mo.

 

[Redbugdave]

I am Federal retiree. We have different plans to choose from at different costs during the open season.

I am paying for the wife and I...$309 a month BCBS Basic for health...and $70 a month high option Met Life dental.

No deductible, $25-35 copayment on visits. $7000 max OOP.

Boy...I feel lucky.

 

[pb4uski]

Late to the party be we pay $213 a month each for catastrophic coverage with a $6,350 deductible and max OOP.

We previously paid $683 a month for 2 for a bronze plan with a $10,000 deductible and $12,500 max OOP.

One thing to consider is whether the deductible is stacked or aggregate. Ours is aggregate meaning that the premium for 2 would be $426 (2 x the $213 premium for an individual) but the deductible would be $12,700 (2 x $6,350) so if one of us had a health event that cost $10,000 we would get no insurance reimbursement if we had one policy for us as a couple, but since we have individual policies the insurance would pay $3,650 ($10,000 - $6,350)

All of the above are before any subsidy (we expect none since we do Roth conversions to the top of the 15% tax bracket).

As a point of reference, my HDHI HSA eligible COBRA premium for 2012 would have been $900/month for us as a couple and that is what I budgeted for so I'm quite happy over two years later to be paying less than half of that COBRA amount, albeit with a somewhat higher deductible.

 

[ripper1]

I wonder about dental insurance. When I worked for Chicago the bc/bs plan didn't pay for hardly anything but cleanings.

 

[pb4uski]

Dental insurance for us would be ~$900/year as I recall. Luckily we don't have any significant dental issues so we have cleanings/checkups which cost us ~$500/year. Even when we had dental when I was working the benefits were not all that great so we self insure and take our chances.

 

[Redbugdave]

I wonder about dental insurance. When I worked for Chicago the bc/bs plan didn't pay for hardly anything but cleanings.

That's the way it is for me, now. That's why we have supplimental MetLife dental. Used to be, years ago my BCBS had dental in the plan.

 

[EastWest Gal]

For my California Blue Shield PPO with a $500 deductible per person, I pay 1691.82 per month for my husband (57) and I (53). It's a group rate, so individual plan would be higher. Our dental is $59.92 per month, and our Vision is $13.29 per month. I continue working just so I can afford health care!

You seriously need to check out the California ACA website. It can't be that expensive. Also, note that with less income, you'll qualify for subsidies.


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[scrabbler1]

Dental insurance for us would be ~$900/year as I recall. Luckily we don;t have any significant dental issues so we have cleanings/checkups which cost us ~$500/year. Even when we had dental when I was working the benefits were not all that great so we self insure and take our chances.

I made sure to get some costly dental work done in 2007 and 2008 when I was on COBRA and knew I would probably lose my dental insurance once I ERed in late 2008. I also figured out that the full insurance cost I was paying while on COBRA plus any copays and deductibles would cost about the same as two visits to the dentist per year, one set of X-rays, and maybe 1 cavity per visit. So, losing dental insurance was not a big deal as long as I avoided anything big going forward; my dentist (who recently retired, good for him!) at the time told me there were no big, looming issues with my teeth in the near-term.

 

[EllisWyatt]

We pay $1385/month for the two of us. $5000 deductible for each of us. No dental coverage - it was available, but at $185/ mo each.

Two years ago when we first planned to retire, and we're going to cover our 26 yo son as well, the cost was going to be $700/ mo for a $2500 deductible.

Fortunately, we suspected it would go and budgeted for it.

 

[ejman]

For my California Blue Shield PPO with a $500 deductible per person, I pay 1691.82 per month for my husband (57) and I (53). It's a group rate, so individual plan would be higher. Our dental is $59.92 per month, and our Vision is $13.29 per month. I continue working just so I can afford health care!

That sounds pretty high. It may be worth it if you/husband have ongoing conditions that require very specialized treatment. If you are both reasonably healthy you might consider some of the various Obamacare plans.

 

[pb4uski]

That sounds pretty high. It may be worth it if you/husband have ongoing conditions that require very specialized treatment. If you are both reasonably healthy you might consider some of the various Obamacare plans.

+1. swakyaby, have you checked out healthsherpa.com?

 

[swakyaby]

You seriously need to check out the California ACA website. It can't be that expensive. Also, note that with less income, you'll qualify for subsidies.


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It is that expensive. The ACA expands insurance coverage for those under 65 who make up to 130% of the federal poverty level. I don't qualify for that. And I don't qualify for any subsidies. And that's why I continue to work.

 

[pb4uski]

It is that expensive. The ACA expands insurance coverage for those under 65 who make up to 130% of the federal poverty level. I don't qualify for that. And I don't qualify for any subsidies. And that's why I continue to work.

Part of the reason it is so costly may be because the deductible is so low. $500 is a very low deductible. In fact, I can't recall hearing of a deductible that low recently but we have had HDHI plans for the last 5 years or so. Depending on your health, there is a definite trade-off between premiums and deductible. In the policies I have looked at in my state, if you have significant health issues the cost is similar across the different medal bands so it is simply a matter of whether you pay the insurer or pay the provider.

Since we are healthy, we have a high deductible policy. The insurer doesn't pay claims until after we have incurred $6,350 of claims for a year (for one). We usually only incur $1,500 or so each and luckily none so far this year. After the $6,350, the insurer pays 100%. So we get insurance protection against a catastrophic illness and access to negotiated rates from providers for $213 a month.

According to healthsherpa.com a BCBS bronze PPO plan with a $5,000 deductible and $6,350 MOOP for someone in LA (zip 90001 - not sure where you are in CA so I just picked LA's first zip code) is $383 a month for a 53 YO non-smoker and $458 for a 57 YO non-smoker. Those rates are similar to the $342/month we were paying for a bronze plan earlier this year before we changed plans.

 

[rbmrtn]

It is that expensive. The ACA expands insurance coverage for those under 65 who make up to 130% of the federal poverty level. I don't qualify for that. And I don't qualify for any subsidies. And that's why I continue to work.

The ACA expands coverage for everyone in that you can not be rejected anymore. There are several parts, medicaid expansion covers those under 65 up to 133% of FPL ( if your state expanded medicare ). subsidies are available up to 400% of FPL. And if your premium exceeds 9.5% of your household income there are some options.

Is this group plan you have from an employer ?