Husband wants to retire but we are worried about healthcare

[NW-Bound]

I would worry more about the motorcycle than about health insurance.

Many (or all?) health insurance companies want to know if you ride a motorcycle.

 

[Brat]

IMHO you should consider is long term care insurance for the motorcyclist. Accidents often result in serious injury to the cyclist and can easily result in the need for care. You have substantial assets so a policy with a 90 day or greater waiting period would make sense.

 

[WineLover01]

A big thanks to all the posters after 10:30 pm last night - I was beginning to think this was not the right forum for me. . . I appreciate the posts about firecalc and especially all the advice re: health insurance - some very good insights and things to think about/look into. I too am worried about hubby's motorcycle hobby - but I guess if that's his mid-life deal, it's better than some other things . . .

 

[In-control]

Hello and welcome to this wonderful forum. I think everyone, regardless of there wealth, worries about health care when they leave an employers plan. My plan was to work part time @ a place that offered the benifit, locally that is Starbucks, Barns and Noble and UPS. You work part time and get full time benifits.

Without that I planned on using the state sponsored health care system in MA, since I am a resisdent. I believe people have real mis-information regarding this programs. Which are esentially volume discounting with the same providers that provide plans for employeers. One example is that I pay ~$600 per month for a family plan thru Fallon. That is ~$400 for the same plan under the state program.

Once you arm yourself with the facts it is not so scary, even if you had to pay $1200 a month for a non sponsored plan you could wing it. This way you give yourself some time to find something else that maybe more price competitive.

Enjoy and remember the best heath advice is "Let thy Food
be thy Medicine" Hippocrates

 

[TooFrugal]

Winelover01, I feel your pain. For us as well health insurance is a main concern about retiring early. Here are some options:

1. Check out your states HIPAA coverage.
2. Hope health care reform doesn't get repealed and have your husband quit his job 18 months (COBRA time period) before guaranteed coverage kicks in.
3. Move to one of the 5 states that has guaranteed coverage now.
4. Apply for private insurance and hope you you don't get canceled just when you need it the most.
5. Get small business insurance coverage. Depending on your state this can mean a group of one or two people, each working a minimum number of hours per week. If you need two for coverage, hire an employee or hire your husband as an employee.
6. If you can't get private coverage check out your states high risk pool coverage.
7. Exercise more and try different holistic diets to improve your health and lower your chance of getting denied due to health issues.
8. Get insurance through the National Association for the Self Employed or some other kind of non-employement group coverage.
9. Check out Foundation for Health Coverage Education
10. Get a part time job at a place that has health insurance for part time employees, like Starbucks.


I have researched this same topic and these are some of the options I have considered.

 

[Richard8655]

Uh.ok...........

 

[chinaco]

... I was beginning to think this was not the right forum for me. . .

From what you described it sounds like you are in the right place.

Don't misinterpret a few gibes.

Trolls and pranksters stop by from time to time and put something out for the fun of getting a reaction. Depending on how someone interprets your post (and the time in the morning... before coffee)... you could get any kind of response.

Also remember, sometimes comments are meant in jest.. but since you are not looking at the person when they say it [-]type it[/-]... it can lead to misinterpretation.

Your circumstances are probably better than average on this forum so there might be a little pension envy going on.

 

[JBmadera]

Hi and welcome! I didn't view any of the posts as "harsh", maybe some folks are like me - scratching the old noggin wondering why someone with millions and another million coming down the road is so worried about healthcare. As others have pointed out, go online and price a policy, with your financial resources I'm sure you will have many, many options.

Enjoy life, it goes by fast!

 

[Midpack]

To the OP, DW and I have almost the same numbers as you and we're only a few years older, and we haven't pulled the ripcord yet either. And we too consider health care the biggest unknown (DW has a pre-existing condition), I can assure you you're not alone in being hesitant.

Reasonable estimates indeed suggest you can retire with a high probability of success based on past history. There's no other crystal ball that's better, I am not suggesting the others are wrong at all. But it's your money and your life, many of the posters here have 5 minutes invested in the "advice" they've given. Having people tell you 'I retired 5 years ago with less' is meaningless - who knows if that plan will survive for 30-40 years? It's like predicting how your full career will go after 5 years in the workforce...

Only you will know when you are ready...but everyone reaches that level of comfort eventually. Best of luck, we'll race you...

 

[Marc1962]

The two "harsh" posts mysteriously disappeared yesterday morning. I imagine they were casualties of attentive moderating.

 

[MichaelB]

Hi and welcome! I didn't view any of the posts as "harsh", maybe some folks are like me - scratching the old noggin wondering why someone with millions and another million coming down the road is so worried about healthcare. As others have pointed out, go online and price a policy, with your financial resources I'm sure you will have many, many options.

Enjoy life, it goes by fast!

JB, you can be denied insurance and have no access to any policy - but you won't know until you commit. A couple of million is quite insufficient to fund retirement and self-paid health care.

 

[JBmadera]

JB, you can be denied insurance and have no access to any policy - but you won't know until you commit. A couple of million is quite insufficient to fund retirement and self-paid health care.

I would suggest and comments about health care policy and the like be taken up elsewhere - there always seems to be an open thread on healthcare. Let's just keep this thread on track, answer Winelover's questions and welcome her to the forum.

Thought the question was about healthcare and that's why I suggested she go online and get a quote. Don't see how this is off-track from the gist of the thread. Please explain?

 

[MichaelB]

I would suggest and comments about health care policy and the like be taken up elsewhere - there always seems to be an open thread on healthcare. Let's just keep this thread on track, answer Winelover's questions and welcome her to the forum.

 

[JBmadera]

oh, I see much clearer now, thanks so much for your insight.

 

[MichaelB]

Thought the question was about healthcare and that's why I suggested she go online and get a quote. Don't see how this is off-track from the gist of the thread. Please explain?

I edited my original comment. The first part was a response to your post, the second was a general comment to other posts, not yours. Sorry for the confusion.

 

[Corporate ORphan]

I fully understand the OP concerns. Unless you are independently wealthy, you have doubts plus there are all the horror stories of being denied coverage when you thought you had it.

I recently was "retired" from a large corporation (along with about 3000 other people) when the company was bought by foreigners. That saved my pension (they had to add 5 years to my age and 30 years of service) but because I technically didn't retire, I didn't qualify for retiree health insurance. (I know there are no guarantees they will keep supplying it but it would have made me feel better.)

I don't know how many nights I have laid awake at night worried about health insurance and we don't even have what I would consider a pre-existing condition (we are still on COBRA so we have priced it but not applied yet).

My husband and I have budgeted the amount we think we will need for the 10 year gap before medicare but with the way health care prices have gone up, who knows As he says there goes the boat he wanted!

 

[JBmadera]

I fully understand the OP concerns. Unless you are independently wealthy, you have doubts plus there are all the horror stories of being denied coverage when you thought you had it.

I recently was "retired" from a large corporation (along with about 3000 other people) when the company was bought by foreigners. That saved my pension (they had to add 5 years to my age and 30 years of service) but because I technically didn't retire, I didn't qualify for retiree health insurance. (I know there are no guarantees they will keep supplying it but it would have made me feel better.)

I don't know how many nights I have laid awake at night worried about health insurance and we don't even have what I would consider a pre-existing condition (we are still on COBRA so we have priced it but not applied yet).

My husband and I have budgeted the amount we think we will need for the 10 year gap before medicare but with the way health care prices have gone up, who knows As he says there goes the boat he wanted!

Perhaps I have "inside info", prior to be laid off my wife worked for Aetna - appears to me that there are lot's of options out there (oops, to the guy who got pissed earlier - hopefully I'm not getting in trouble for talking about healthcare). I encourage you to go online and see what's out there. Since we both have been canned that's what we had to do, maybe we've lucky that neither of us have pre-existing conditions, but we've been able to sign up for individual plans.....good luck, and I'm so sorry to hear about your sleep problems.....

 

[MichaelB]

Perhaps I have "inside info", prior to be laid off my wife worked for Aetna - appears to me that there are lot's of options out there (oops, to the guy who got pissed earlier - hopefully I'm not getting in trouble for talking about healthcare). I encourage you to go online and see what's out there. Since we both have been canned that's what we had to do, maybe we've lucky that neither of us have pre-existing conditions, but we've been able to sign up for individual plans.....good luck, and I'm so sorry to hear about your sleep problems.....

I’d love some “inside info”, and I’m sure others would as well. What options are out there for people that have been – or fear they may be – denied coverage either for preexisting conditions or simply underwriter’s decision. The only real option I’m aware of is the state high risk pools. The online tools I am familiar with only give non-qualified quotes – meaning neither price nor coverage are assured and the price quote is usually the “best case” not the “likely price if qualified”.

oops, to the guy who got pissed earlier - hopefully I'm not getting in trouble for talking about healthcare).

This isn’t helpful.

 

[obgyn65]

Hello WineLover - it looks like you are all set to go for it now. Welcome to the Forum.

Are we being too cautious or should be go for it next year? Or maybe not yet?

 

[obgyn65]

+1

(the healthcare reform is) actually long overdue and should be welcomed.

 

[WineLover01]

Midpack - thanks for the post - so glad to see that we are not alone in our dilemma re: healthcare. I also appreciate all of the other posts since early this am - Again, our main hesitation is the uncertainty - i.e. even though we can go out and purchase individual coverage or any other kind of coverage on the open market once DH retires, who is to say those policies won't be eliminated at some point because of the changes coming in 2014? Many companies right now are considering eliminating employee and/or retiree coverage because they see that it may not be economically feasible in the future to offer those plans. That's what we are worried about. Until the dust settles or the future becomes clearer and more certain, we will probably remain in this waiting pattern as we do not want to do anything that would risk us being put into a plan we don't want. And yes, we realize that the plan we are currently on could also be eliminated as well - its probably a case of being more comfortable right now with what is familiar. Sorry if this thread turned too much into a healthcare discussion but again, I do appreciate all of the responses.

 

[WineLover01]

Marc1962, MichaelB, CorporateOrphan and Too Frugal . . . a special thanks.

 

[Corporate ORphan]

Hey JBmadera, I second the request for an "insider" info you may have that you can share.

 

[Midpack]

Midpack - thanks for the post - so glad to see that we are not alone in our dilemma re: healthcare. I also appreciate all of the other posts since early this am - Again, our main hesitation is the uncertainty - i.e. even though we can go out and purchase individual coverage or any other kind of coverage on the open market once DH retires, who is to say those policies won't be eliminated at some point because of the changes coming in 2014? Many companies right now are considering eliminating employee and/or retiree coverage because they see that it may not be economically feasible in the future to offer those plans. That's what we are worried about.

We might retire anyway despite the uncertainty. If we get into a healthcare bind, the worst thing that might happen is that one or both of us would go back to work (a job with bennies). To borrow from the recent book Early Retirement Extreme, FWIW...

If more people spent five years saving money and learning how to live efficiently on their investments instead of spending five years to become plumbers or MBAs and zero years on living efficiently, and therefore working the rest of their lives, financial freedom might not seem so scary. For those who are still unsure, consider that the worst thing that can happen to me, compared to someone who works for a living, is that I have to go back to work and do what they have been doing all along.

 

[Jetlag]

If you ever decide to leave your husband, give me a call !!