Health Insurance in Retirement

[salmp01]

I'm 53 and I just told my employer of 27 years that I'm leaving the beginning of December. I have a question about health insurance. I have two grade school kids and wife and my wife doesn't have full time employment so I need to figure out health insurance. My company offers retiree health care but the cost would be 2700/month! I looked for the cheapest HSA compatible health plan in my area and it was around 1000/month for a 14k deductible. I also looked at a health sharing plan from sedera for $500/month. Here are my two questions..

Has anyone used a health sharing program? If so, what has been your experience?

Is there a way to contribute to an HSA if I didn't have an HSA compatible plan? I own several rental properties and I'll still have decent income in retirement so I'd like to deduct the maximum and add to my HSA account if possible.

 

[chassis]

healthcare.gov

 

[Stormy Kromer]

If you haven't done this yet, go to MNSURE. I'm in MN and have been ER'd for 6 years now and have just updated my plan today.

New legislation caps your premium at about 8.5% of your income. I highly recommend a plan that is offers the HSA option. Yes, you do need a plan that is HSA compatible, they run a few bucks higher, but the HSA is worth it.

Health sharing plans....I don't have any experience with them personally, but they scare me. I had a friend in one that went bankrupt while he was having surgery. He's negotiating with the hospital on his $60,000 bill right now....I want the clout of the MN Insurance Commissioner on my back if I have an issue with my insurer.

Its not hard to walk through the MNSURE site, I did it today. I've been with Medica for a few years but now that Blue Cross is back in the market and I plan on switching to them. The silver plan for DW and I will be about $700 a month after subsidy, and we're not exactly low income. This is less than I was paying for the Bronze plan with Medica last year.

My experience with COBRA plans is that they are very expensive. Employer plans offer them because they have to. Check out your state's exchange first.

Also, if you are self employed the premium is deductible off of schedule C. A huge deduction, including self employment tax.

I've paid my own health insurance premium since I was 19 years old in 1984. Its not the end of the world to not have an employer's plan to count on. If you were working for an employer who was paying part of your premium....you were really paying it anyway. They had it built into your salary without you knowing it.

Good luck to you.

 

[RetiredAt49]

I’m in the same boat (about to retire) and looking at options.

 

[Samsung4321]

Medibank Silver Plus Security comprehensive hospital cover $A3,360 (updated details) / yr; GP free.


What does that not cover that you would require / expect from USA health insurance?

 

[MichaelB]

Medibank Silver Plus Security comprehensive hospital cover $A3,360 (updated details) / yr; GP free.


What does that not cover that you would require / expect from USA health insurance?

If you’re going to provide a link please also explain what it is and why it is relevant.

 

[Aerides]

If that $2700 per month for a family of four has a low/no deductible, that's not terrible.

As far as ACA policies, be sure to input your planned income for 2022, as you may qualify for subsidies. If you don't, due to high income still, then that is the price. $1100 before subsidies is what I'd be paying for a household of 2 with no subsidy, for a HD/HSA bronze plan.

I have no experience with Health Share things, you can search threads here on the topic. My understanding is the coverage is less robust, and with children I would not take any risks.

If you do not have an HSA eligible plan, you cannot contribute to an HSA. You can use existing funds, but not add (therefore not use the HSA to help manage magi).

All the granular details can be found on the aca site:

https://www.healthcare.gov/glossary...the,preventive services before the deductible.

 

[salmp01]

If you haven't done this yet, go to MNSURE. I'm in MN and have been ER'd for 6 years now and have just updated my plan today.

New legislation caps your premium at about 8.5% of your income. I highly recommend a plan that is offers the HSA option. Yes, you do need a plan that is HSA compatible, they run a few bucks higher, but the HSA is worth it.

Health sharing plans....I don't have any experience with them personally, but they scare me. I had a friend in one that went bankrupt while he was having surgery. He's negotiating with the hospital on his $60,000 bill right now....I want the clout of the MN Insurance Commissioner on my back if I have an issue with my insurer.

Its not hard to walk through the MNSURE site, I did it today. I've been with Medica for a few years but now that Blue Cross is back in the market and I plan on switching to them. The silver plan for DW and I will be about $700 a month after subsidy, and we're not exactly low income. This is less than I was paying for the Bronze plan with Medica last year.

My experience with COBRA plans is that they are very expensive. Employer plans offer them because they have to. Check out your state's exchange first.

Also, if you are self employed the premium is deductible off of schedule C. A huge deduction, including self employment tax.

I've paid my own health insurance premium since I was 19 years old in 1984. Its not the end of the world to not have an employer's plan to count on. If you were working for an employer who was paying part of your premium....you were really paying it anyway. They had it built into your salary without you knowing it.

Good luck to you.

Thanks for the reply! I have gone to mnsure and my cost for traditional HSA insurance is around 1k with a 14k deductible. I have had traditional HSA through my employer with a 6k deductible and only exceeded this once.

I agree that health sharing programs do seem a bit scary. For the past month I've spent significant time looking into these and feel that sedera is probably the best fit for me. The plan that works for me would only be $500/month and my goal is to not use this ever unless a big ticket item appears (cancer, bad accident, etc). The deductible I'm signing up for is 5k per incident

In addition to signing up for sedera, I'm going to sign up for a direct primary care program and I found one here in MN called KaviraHealth and they charge around $40/month for my whole family. They will cover all the basics, make house calls when needed and will even dispense medicine or vaccines.

I've really learned how messed up our health care systems is for healthy people like our family and I'm finding good options outside of the traditional options.

 

[salmp01]

If that $2700 per month for a family of four has a low/no deductible, that's not terrible.

As far as ACA policies, be sure to input your planned income for 2022, as you may qualify for subsidies. If you don't, due to high income still, then that is the price. $1100 before subsidies is what I'd be paying for a household of 2 with no subsidy, for a HD/HSA bronze plan.

I have no experience with Health Share things, you can search threads here on the topic. My understanding is the coverage is less robust, and with children I would not take any risks.

If you do not have an HSA eligible plan, you cannot contribute to an HSA. You can use existing funds, but not add (therefore not use the HSA to help manage magi).

All the granular details can be found on the aca site:

https://www.healthcare.gov/glossary...the,preventive services before the deductible.

The 2700/month program is for a 6k deductible and we have only hit our deductible once in the past 10 years. The traditional HSA plan is only 1k for our family of 4 but the health sharing plan is only $500. My income will be over 100k so I don't think I'd qualify for any subsidies.

I do have 2 grade school aged kids. Why do you say that you wouldn't take any risk with a health sharing plan if I have kids? I'd like to learn more about the potential risks.

It's too bad that I need to sign up for a "traditional" HSA plan to contribute to an HSA. I was hoping there would be a way around this but it's looking like that's not the case!

 

[salmp01]

I’m in the same boat (about to retire) and looking at options.

Check our sedera, I'm curious to hear what you think. I looked at lots of health sharing programs and this seemed to work best for me. My current insurance won't expire until the end of this year.

 

[Pineapple13]

We are not quite yet retired but we started our own business and had to buy our own insurance. The insurance plans available from healthcare.gov (ridiculously named ACA - Affordable Care Act) were brutally expensive for what you get. We don't qualify for a subsidy and a 2 person plan (not including our daughter) with a $13k deductible, $16k out of pocket max, and can only see in network providers that are limited to the state of TN was $1000 a month. We RV travel a lot and plan to get on the road full time in a couple of years so we needed a plan with national coverage. We found Tennessee Farm Bureau that has old style insurance plans. They are very affordable if you are healthy as you have to fill out a health questionnaire for a quote and they factor in our age. We got a plan in the United healthcare system, national coverage, a family plan including our young adult daughter, $1500individual/$3000 family deductible for $653/mo. They do have cheaper plans with higher deductibles. And as long as we remain TN farm bureau members ($50/yr) we can keep the insurance even if we move out of Tennessee. While this is limited to TN residents, I have to think there are similar organizations in other states that provide similar group plans. Hope that info helps and good luck!

 

[salmp01]

We are not quite yet retired but we started our own business and had to buy our own insurance. The insurance plans available from healthcare.gov (ridiculously named ACA - Affordable Care Act) were brutally expensive for what you get. We don't qualify for a subsidy and a 2 person plan (not including our daughter) with a $13k deductible, $16k out of pocket max, and can only see in network providers that are limited to the state of TN was $1000 a month. We RV travel a lot and plan to get on the road full time in a couple of years so we needed a plan with national coverage. We found Tennessee Farm Bureau that has old style insurance plans. They are very affordable if you are healthy as you have to fill out a health questionnaire for a quote and they factor in our age. We got a plan in the United healthcare system, national coverage, a family plan including our young adult daughter, $1500individual/$3000 family deductible for $653/mo. They do have cheaper plans with higher deductibles. And as long as we remain TN farm bureau members ($50/yr) we can keep the insurance even if we move out of Tennessee. While this is limited to TN residents, I have to think there are similar organizations in other states that provide similar group plans. Hope that info helps and good luck!

That's a great deal! I just looked at the MN farm Bureau and they just pointed me to the exchange so it appears that they don't offer the same plan.