Hi, I'm Derslickmeister

[Derslickmeister]

Hi All,
New to the forum, obviously. I was drawn here from seeing the occasional post on the Bogleheads site from a member of this site. I'm 51, the DW is 48. We are looking to retire in a couple of years and hope to get some good advice from you guys. She is a 5 year cancer survivor and we worry about health insurance affordability outside of the job between retirement and Medicare, so we will be looking for threads of this nature.

Thanks,

Slick.

 

[brewer12345]

Hah, you hit the jackpot! PPACA aka Obamacare allows you to buy health insurance on the open market with no underwriting or exclusions of pre-existing conditions. The subsidies may get changed or go away, but I think this is here to stay so you should be good to go.

Welcome to the forum.

 

[Derslickmeister]

Thanks, that is excellent news. We will follow this closely as the time to pack it in nears. I guess without ACA she would have to work until she drops...

 

[Bikerdude]

Lots of threads located in the "Health and Early Retirement" topic.

 

[BigE]

Welcome slick. Awesome that your wife is five years out from her diagnosis. Would love to year more about your story/road to FIRE.

 

[Chuckanut]

Welcome!

 

[Derslickmeister]

Welcome slick. Awesome that your wife is five years out from her diagnosis. Would love to year more about your story/road to FIRE.

Well you asked for it It has been quite a ride for sure. My wife was hospitalized with a blockage in her colon. After an unsuccessful colonoscophy she had an MRI which showed a tumor of course but they also detected more issues in several lymph nodes and her liver. As a side note my father passed away from colon cancer two days after my wife was diagnosed. So you can imagine the depths to which we had sunk during all this. Well the wife's cancer turned out to be Endometrial cancer, not colon cancer and it had spread to many areas of her body (stage 3C). She had a couple of operations to remove the tumors, a colon resection with a colostomy bag that she endured for over a year, another surgery to reattach everything after the nine, yes nine rounds of chemotherapy. She also had two liver biopsies, one needle biopsy and another open biopsy. So, now here we are after all that, she still has her job, her great health insurance and me . But as you can imagine we are fearful for the future and without decent coverage going forward could be wiped out financially. This is our story and the reason we trying to make sure we dot all the "I"s and cross all the "t"s in our retirement plan.

 

[obgyn65]

Welcome and best wishes.

 

[Rothman]

I also wish the best for your wife. You never know exactly how we would act if we were in the same situation, but if I was sure the health insurance was covered I think I'd retire as fast as possible to spend time with her and care for her. In the end that is why you saved, I can't imagine a better reason to use it.

 

[Derslickmeister]

I also wish the best for your wife. You never know exactly how we would act if we were in the same situation, but if I was sure the health insurance was covered I think I'd retire as fast as possible to spend time with her and care for her. In the end that is why you saved, I can't imagine a better reason to use it.

Thanks Rothman, that is what I'm striving for and will hopefully be at that point soon.

 

[Dreamer]

Welcome and glad to hear that she is 5 years out.