Pre-medicare insurance premiums

[PoorOldCountryBoy]

We're in the late 50s cohort and paying premiums $16,000/year for Blue Cross coverage, plus another $1000 for Delta dental. The only good news is it's a HDHP/HSA so we can save $9000 to our HSAs (that is 9K on top of the 16K). We just got another increase for 2021 so the pain point is inspiring me to check with everyone here.



Is anyone in their late 50s doing the same amounts or are we throwing away money?



Note we do want good coverage-some may advise taking a chance but we would be foolish to expose ourselves to a big loss, so the decent insurance must continue. Any creative solutions out there?

 

[Catawba Chuck]

We FIRE'd in January 2021 at age 60 & 62. We pay megacorp $1846/mo for a BCBS GOLD plan, $1200 deductible ea. (so no HSA) We canceled the dental as our dentist is high-end and not in the plan. We just pay them cash.

 

[pb4uski]

$16k a year is a little on the high side in my experience, but not unheard of. A lot of people manage their income to qualify for ACA premium credits. IIRC you would need to manage your income to be below $68,960 for a couple.

You could always move to neighboring Vermont... in 2020 a BCBS HSA Bronze plan is $1,091/month for a couple. Or what we had for the last 8 years is a BCBS non-HSA catastrophic policy that provided similar coverage to a Bronze policy but was only $535/month for a couple. We could buy a cat policy even though we were over 30 because we met the affordability exemption in ACA as the premiums of the lowest cost Bronze policy exceeded 8.24% of our income.

Our ACA catastrophic plan was the same ACA catastrophic plan available to people 30 and under... under ACA if the lowest cost bronze plan exceeded 8.24% of your income (in 2020) then you could claim an affordability hardship exemption and purchase such a catastrophc plan even if you were over 30... and that is what we did... however, in most states the premiums were not much different from a bronze plan but in Vermont it is significantly lower because age-rating is prohibited... so use of that strategy is pretty rare... in fact only about 6 people in Vermont did it and 2 of the 6 were DW and I... since we are both now eligible for Medicare I suspect that they are glad to be rid of us.

...But the individual mandate itself still exists, and the hardship exemption from the individual mandate is still important in that it allows a person age 30 or older to purchase a catastrophic health plan. Without a hardship exemption, these plans are only available for enrollees under age 30. ...

Your state’s health insurance exchange is allowed to give you a hardship exemption—which you can then use to enroll in a catastrophic health plan—if one of the following things would otherwise prevent you from getting health insurance:...
The lowest-cost plan available in the exchange in your area is considered unaffordable, after any applicable premium tax credits are applied (so in almost all cases, this will only apply to people who are not eligible for premium tax credits). In 2019, coverage was considered unaffordable if the premium for the lowest-cost plan would be more than 8.3% of your income. For 2020, coverage is considered unaffordable if the lowest-cost plan's premiums would be more than 8.24% of your income. ...

https://www.verywellhealth.com/how-...insurance exchange,within the last six months.

 

[bizlady]

We pay 16k but opted out of dental. 1100 deductible

 

[PaunchyPirate]

I'm single. Age 58. My ACA plan premiums would be $10,800 per year for 2021, so the OPs are not out of line. But I am one of those who is managing my income to obtain an ACA subsidy which lowers the premium to about $4,000 per year. My investment dividends are coming in around $40,000/year. I spend this and I make up the rest of my spending from a savings account that I padded prior to retirement.

I think I can go about 2 more years this way unless I face a large unexpected expense. In 2023, I probably will have to sell some investment money to repad the savings. So for that year, I will likely pay full-price for my health insurance. Then back on to a subsidy for a couple years.

That's the plan. If ACA falls apart, then I will suck it up and pay full price.

I paid for dental insurance for the last 2 years, but for 2021 I am switching to just buying into a $100 dental discount plan.

 

[cathy63]

We're in the late 50s cohort and paying premiums $16,000/year for Blue Cross coverage, plus another $1000 for Delta dental. The only good news is it's a HDHP/HSA so we can save $9000 to our HSAs (that is 9K on top of the 16K). We just got another increase for 2021 so the pain point is inspiring me to check with everyone here.

Is anyone in their late 50s doing the same amounts or are we throwing away money?

Note we do want good coverage-some may advise taking a chance but we would be foolish to expose ourselves to a big loss, so the decent insurance must continue. Any creative solutions out there?

We are 59 and 57. For 2021, our options for Bronze HDHP/HSA ACA plans with no dental are:
Kaiser HMO - $1312.80/mo - $15,753.60/yr
Healthnet PPO - $1415.89/mo - $16,990.86/yr
Sharp HMO - $1494.47/mo - $17,993.64/yr
BCBS PPO - $1652.86/mo - $19,834.32/yr

If we could manage our income down to $68,959 ($1 below the cliff), we'd get a subsidy of $10,711.32 for the year.

 

[Sunset]

Many folks don't carry dental insurance, us included.

We would buy into the agreement our dentist offered: $450/yr for 2 people, included 2 exams, cleanings each per yr, plus xrays, and 20% off any work.

For the past 5 yrs it's been no cavities so works out to $112.50 per visit per person.

I don't like all the dental insurance I've had in the past as they had limits of around $1K per yr, and cost me a bunch.

 

[PoorOldCountryBoy]

Thanks to everyone for sharing. I find the ACA plans for Massachusetts a bit restrictive if we ever need a specialist (we are in western MA and want the option for Boston hospitals if we need a good "mechanic" LOL).



We are managing to minimize income right now which gets us a decent tax deduction for the health premiums, so that helps a lot.



At least when it comes to health care costs, I feel your pain.