Looking at monthly income vs outgo we are doing splendidly. Monthly, we currently spend 91% of the pension payment so there's still a small cushion and then my itty bitty part-time income all goes to savings. The monthly budget includes setting aside savings for medical expenses and other non-monthly expenses. The utilities are all within estimates (next months electric bill for all this A/C will be HIGH!) and I've changed how we get our prescriptions and saved a lot since January.
I posted that quote on 6-29-12.
This week we got a letter about our health insurance. Our health care plan is through DH's pension. It's subsidized based on his years of service and the subsidy has been quite generous and we had a choice of 3 levels of insurance. Since he retired in 2010 we've chosen the lowest cost plan with the highest deductible. We have few doctor's visits and cheap generic prescriptions. This has worked just fine for us.
The letter announced that the low cost, high deductible plan will no longer be offered as of Jan., 2013 and we all have to accept the "Enhanced Plan" with low co-pays and low deductible but a MUCH HIGHER monthly cost.
The impact to our monthly expenses is about $400/month. This is so disappointing as the low cost plan was just fine for us. This will eat up our entire monthly cushion and a good hunk of my part-time income.
Our options are to accept this or drop all coverage which really is no option at all as this is still much less cost to us than a private policy would be.
This change is only for 2013 because starting in 2014 the pension plan is dropping all coverage for spouses of retirees. There will be no subsidy and no ability for spouses to have access to insurance, even if the spouse pays the full premium amount. DH will still have coverage with a subsidy but I'm certain the costs will go up. So I'm hoping that Obamacare really happens in 2014.
The pension plan says that the pension is secure, but that the health care fund is unsustainable. They say they are working to keep health care for the retirees, yada, yada, but spouses are just excess baggage.
So 2013 will look different for us, budget wise. I can make it work, but it gets me mad that other people make decisions (no more options on insurance levels) and it impacts my bottom line to the tune of $400/month. We are grateful to have insurance and the subsidy for as long as we have it. It's just very disappointing to not be able to have a high deductible/low cost option next year.