If you are retired & 54 - 59 yrs old, how much are you paying for health insurance?

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cyber888

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If you are retired & 54 - 59 yrs old, how much are you paying for health insurance?

I'm definitely retiring around 56-58. I have no company insurance, no military insurance .. so my only hope is ACA or whatever system will replace it. It's just DW and myself. She's currently covered under my insurance and we pay around $560/month (and it is subsidized by my work). We don't have kids.

I know with ACA, an income of $18,000-$44,000? will receive subsidy.

And if it is lower than $18,000, meaning if I don't withdraw that much from my retirement account, I fall within Medicaid ? Not sure. Is Medcaid dependent on income or assets? I know ACA depends on yearly income.

I was just wondering how much you guys in this particular age bracket are paying for health insurance (husband and wife, without kids). Thanks!:greetings10:
 
Have you checked out healthsherpa.com? Just indicate that you lost your coverage (which would be true if your retire) and follow the prompts.
 
What state do are you located in? It depends on the state you are living in.
 
Lukeee said:
What state do are you located in? It depends on the state you are living in.
Click to expand...

If OP qualifies for (PTC), ie a subsidy, then this would not be a factor. His MAGI would determine his contribution if he chooses the (SLCSP) ie second low cost silver plan. OPs share of the premium would be between 2% and 9% of his MAGI, depending on if he is closer to 100% vs 400% of (FPL) federal poverty level.

-gauss
 
I believe you live in North Carolina. Since you live in a non Medicaid expansion state, for 2 people the ACA tax subsidies are available between taxable income (actually MAGI) between $16,450 - $65,840.
If you are under $16,450, you would not qualify for Medicaid medical coverage, since your state has not adopted Medicaid expansion.

See below for how MAGI works.
http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/pdf/2013/MAGI_summary13.pdf

In addition to Healthsherpa.com, you can play with the different plans and income on Healthcare.gov

I have 1 dependent (same as Married) with a total of MAGI of $24k and we pay a total of $304 monthly for a full Silver plan from Florida Blue.
Our ages for 2018 were 58 and 57.
 
Me 58, my wife 50. We pay $878 per month for an OSCAR Bronze PPO California. No subsidies. We are both pretty fit and only use annual preventive care. Kaiser HMO would have been $720 per month but we wanted to stay with the same doctors at UCLA that we have been seeing for the past 20 years.

A word of advice - stay fit during retirement.
 
wow

that just killed my estimate of 1k a month on insurance

Just did health serpa and the cheapest plan was 1500 a month with 6k deductible
 
I am 55 and live in New York and pay $566 per month (single, no kids), Silver plan. New York, thankfully, does not allow age rating, although its HI costs, especially in the downstate region, are quite high.


What I pay does not include any premium subsidy. Most years, I have qualified for one although it has been small, less than $100 per month, often a lot less. Last year, I went over the ACA cliff and lost the small subsidy.


I was looking at a 30% increase for 2019 but the state cut it back to around half of that. I haven't received official notice of what my 2019 premium will be, yet.


My OOP costs are around $2k per year, well below my annual deductible which is somewhat over $7k.
 
We retired the first time in 2002 - 2003 at ages 50 & 45 respectively to go sailing for 3 years. We were living in CA at the time. We are Canadian Citizens as well as USA. We moved to Toronto with Family, signed up for Canadian Healthcare and purchased international health insurance for $700 for both of us for the 6 months a year we were at sea. (Not really relevant to OP situation but anecdotal nevertheless)

When we came back from our sabbatical in 2006 we moved to Florida and we purchased HD catastrophic healthcare (Forget the cost but it was not that much).

I was then offered my old job back at my previous company where I worked till 2012 then retired for the second time for good, DW went back to work and we had healthcare through her employer. Then ~2014 DW retired for good also, we limited our MAGI to get Maximum ACA subsidies and have been with ACA ever since. ACA was VERY good for us and reasonably priced after subsidies.

I go on Medicare next year and the cost will ~$400 a month for me alone (Medicare + MediGap + D). The most we have ever paid for healthcare for both of us let alone one. DW is only 60 so we will be relying on ACA for her for as long as we can. We will continue to Manage MAGI as long as we can for DW. If things change and HC becomes unaffordable we will go the Canada route again, but hope it does not come to that.
 
Last edited:
30yeardraw said:
that just killed my estimate of 1k a month on insurance

Just did health serpa and the cheapest plan was 1500 a month with 6k deductible
Click to expand...

Don't think of it as health insurance.... think of it as insurance to avoid your sizeable nestegg from getting a six-figure ding as a result of an unanticipated accident or illness resulting in huge medical bills.... plus you get access to negiated rates for medical services that you need and a free annual wellness visit.
 
pb4uski said:
Don't think of it as health insurance.... think of it as insurance to avoid your sizeable nestegg from getting a six-figure ding as a result of an unanticipated accident or illness resulting in huge medical bills
Click to expand...

Tru dat.

Health insurance is a misnomer in terms of what a policy is inherently designed to do for the insured. "Health insurance" and the companies that sell these policies provide little in the way of insuring an individual's health. Viewed through that lens, health insurance is a flawed product. It's really asset insurance for the purpose of providing some level of protection from exorbitant health care costs for the insured and ultimately turning a profit for the insurance company.

An earlier poster mentioned diligence when it comes to taking care of one's health in retirement. The best insurance is that ounce of prevention from a lifetime of good habits - along with the caveat that in spite of one's best efforts, sh*t can happen!
 
Not retired yet but according to HealthSherpa, we'd pay $0 for a Blue HSA Bronze - PPO policy for 2 adults (60, 59) with $6450 deductible and $6450 max OOP **IF** we kept our income below $65k. Otherwise, we'd be paying $1407 if income is >/= $65k.
 
pb4uski said:
Don't think of it as health insurance.... think of it as insurance to avoid your sizeable nestegg from getting a six-figure ding as a result of an unanticipated accident or illness resulting in huge medical bills.... plus you get access to negiated rates for medical services that you need and a free annual wellness visit.
Click to expand...

+1

We are 60, and part of our retirement planning was to set aside $100K for our health insurance premiums before Medicare. Our Megacorp FA said we should plan for at least $15K annually for those 5 years. The cheapest bronze HSA plan in our state would be just over $16K.

Fortunately through the terms of my retirement I have Megacorp insurance at employee rates through 2019, which saves us about $15K in premiums. Beyond that we will have to evaluate the cheapest between paying for Megacorp insurance or ACA, but we are anticipating the numbers above.
 
I am 59. I am a military retiree. I have Martins Point insurance [which is like an underwriter for Tricare]. I pay an annual enrollment fee of $300, and co-pays of $10.50 for office visits. My drugs are $9 for each 90-day refill.
 
$40 per month for ACA Bronze plan. Qualify for ptc otherwise premiums would exceed $20k for the two of us.

Retired 6 years ago at 53.
 
61 & 57 we pay $1403 per month in Connecticut with a $5600 per person deductible. Luckily my company provides retirees with a HRA subsidiy for health insurance of $13000.
 
pb4uski said:
Have you checked out healthsherpa.com? Just indicate that you lost your coverage (which would be true if your retire) and follow the prompts.
Click to expand...

I had the chance to go to the website. Thanks!

For HealthSerpa.com or Healthcare.gov - How do you calculate income. is that Gross Income or Taxable Income :confused:?
I mean Taxable income includes your federal and state standard deductions/exemptions.

I don't want to fall below the minimum, because I don't think I'm covered by Medicaid. So we want stay above $18,000,
which I will have to withdraw from retirement savings (401K/IRA) ... We have after-tax savings, but I guess we will be forced to take distribution from pre-tax savings so we will meet the minimum $18,000 income.
 
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J295 said:
$40 per month for ACA Bronze plan. Qualify for ptc otherwise premiums would exceed $20k for the two of us.

Retired 6 years ago at 53.
Click to expand...


So I guess your income is between $18K - $40K ? Is that Gross income ?? thanks.
 
My wife is in that age range. She is still on an ACA, I was on an ACA plan with her but recently went on Medicare. We keep our joint income at the top of the range for subsidy and her silver, HSA eligible $6500 deductible plan costs her about $450/month. Without the subsidy it would be about $800/month.
 
Dtail said:
I believe you live in North Carolina. Since you live in a non Medicaid expansion state, for 2 people the ACA tax subsidies are available between taxable income (actually MAGI) between $16,450 - $65,840.
If you are under $16,450, you would not qualify for Medicaid medical coverage, since your state has not adopted Medicaid expansion.

See below for how MAGI works.
http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/pdf/2013/MAGI_summary13.pdf

In addition to Healthsherpa.com, you can play with the different plans and income on Healthcare.gov

I have 1 dependent (same as Married) with a total of MAGI of $24k and we pay a total of $304 monthly for a full Silver plan from Florida Blue.
Our ages for 2018 were 58 and 57.
Click to expand...



Thanks.. this is very helpful. Didnt know about MAGI. Thank you
 
cyber888 said:
I had the chance to go to the website. Thanks!

For HealthSerpa.com or Healthcare.gov - How do you calculate income. is that Gross Income or Taxable Income :confused:?
I mean Taxable income includes your federal and state standard deductions/exemptions.

I don't want to fall below the minimum, because I don't think I'm covered by Medicaid. So we want stay above $18,000,
which I will have to withdraw from retirement savings (401K/IRA) ... We have after-tax savings, but I guess we will be forced to take distribution from pre-tax savings so we will meet the minimum $18,000 income.
Click to expand...

You use modified adjusted gross income. https://www.healthcare.gov/glossary/modified-adjusted-gross-income-magi/
 
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