Early retirement traveling on ACA healthcare

[GoingEarly2022]

First of all I really enjoy reading all of the great experiences and information on this site.
I have a few questions:
My wife and I are both 59 yrs old and plan to try to retire at 60.5 or 61.
We are thinking that the ACA healthcare is our best choice for a good plan and hopeful that it will be around and reasonably priced when we need it. My question for all in here is. My wife and I are from Indiana and want to take our fifth wheel to either Florida & or Arizona 3-Months in the winter. It is our understanding, that the ACA healthcare will only cover a medical visit that is an emergency visit. What is everyone else doing for health insurance if traveling such as described.

Thanks in advance.
GoingEarly2022

 

[FrankiesGirl]

I have Ambetter, and they've stated on their site that if you travel to one of the (I believe) 20 states that they have networks in, even if you're part of an EPO they consider you covered as long as you use an Ambetter doc/facility. This may be something that other national health insurance companies might also do, but you'd need to confirm the details yourself obviously (including what I said about Ambetter since I am just a stranger on the internet and could be wrong/misread things)

Otherwise what I've read is that you get a limited time policy called travel insurance for the state/area you'll be traveling in, just for the time you'll be traveling.

 

[littleb]

We also have the ACA and took BCBS because of their national network.

We had two emergencies out of town which resulted in inpatient hospital stays. Both times the hospitals and Drs were in the Blue Cross network.

As long as you know most network hospitals are in bigger cities. We both have the BCBS app on our phones which gives us in network info by city.

 

[SecondCor521]

Moving from one state to another, even if temporary, can perhaps qualify you for a special enrollment period on the exchange.

Perhaps you can switch your ACA policy back and forth between Indiana and your southern address as you go back and forth. You'd be able to get coverage, although you'd have to restart your annual deductible.

And it could be sort of a hassle. Depending on how concerned you are, you might either travel around the end of one month or the beginning of the next, or overlap your policies by a month.

 

[njhowie]

Get travel insurance through insuremytrip.com. When you set up the parameters for your query, you'll set cost of trip to be some minimal amount, like $100 and choose the policy which provides medical limits you're looking for. Since you have medical insurance, you can choose a policy/provider which has medical as "secondary", meaning it kicks in after your own policy provides any benefits. If there were a claim, it would just take a little longer to complete as there would be a coordination of benefits...since your own health insurance might not provide coverage, the travel insurance would in effect become primary.

However, you could also select a travel policy providing primary medical coverage, meaning it immediately pays any claim regardless of any insurance you may have and no coordination of benefits.

Either way, travel insurance is very inexpensive for the coverage it provides, especially in the case where you're looking for medical only. Go to insuremytrip.com and you can play with the numbers and see what it offers. We've used it many times, and have been extremely happy with it.

 

[PaunchyPirate]

The fact that you get insurance through the ACA is not the determining factor about the plan's geographic network coverage. The ACA doesn't mandate anything on this. However, many insurance companies choose to offer plans on the ACA exchanges that are indeed quite limited in the geographic coverage of their networks. You really need to examine the policy offerings in your particular location to know the situation.

In my county in Pennsylvania, the policies offered on the exchange do limit coverage to Western Pennsylvania facilities (except for emergency situations). Even the Blue Cross/Blue Shield plans on the ACA exchange are limited.

If I want, I can purchase different Blue Cross/Blue Shield plans outside of the exchange that do offer access to the wider BC/BS network nationwide. Those plans are more expensive and do not let me use an ACA subsidy (since the plans are not sold on the ACA exchange).

So, for me, it's a choice of a subsidized ACA plan or wider geographic network coverage. I've chosen the ACA plan the first 3 years of my early retirement. For my travels, I just figure it will be covered in the emergency, but then I need to make arrangements to get home for additional treatment. For international travel, I purchase medical travel insurance... usually GeoBlue, which is a BC/BS product.

 

[Splash]

Since we retired 4 years ago, we have used ACA providers that only offer emergency coverage outside of NE Wisconsin. We self-insure non-emergencies for the 4 months we winter in Florida. So far, we have used the Virtual Visit option our insurance provides once for a sinus infection. We also investigated the urgent care facility where we stay in Florida but haven't used them. They have published prices for a variety of services. The costs seemed reasonable for us to self-insure for most things. Before coming to Florida this year, we did confirm that our insurance provider is currently covering Covid-19 diagnosis and treatment regardless of where we are.

ACA policies can vary by county. So, you really need to investigate what you may have available in your geographic region.

 

[slappy52]

If you are an Indiana resident, you should check out the plans from Indiana farm bureau. We got a policy through united healthcare that had a vastly better network than what Ambetter offered and about a third of the price. It's not a junk short term plan.

The downside is that you have to have blood tests, etc and they may reject you for certain conditions. You have to join the farm bureau for $30/yr.

 

[GoingEarly2022]

Thanks to all who responded

Thanks to all who responded !!

Slappy52, are you from Indiana ? I live east of Evansville near Newburgh.
Are you talking about medical health insurance ?
How affordable is it for 2-people ?
Thanks for your input on these questions.

Go Hoosiers !!!

I need to check this out at Indiana Farm Bureau.

 

[KenZ71]

Also hoping for a similar plan as outlined by OP.

Curious why emergency only coverage is a big deal. If traveling seems reasonable to plan non emergency care around covered areas. No?

 

[conversationalphrase]

Similar thread that may be helpful,

https://www.early-retirement.org/forums/showthread.php?t=102292

Sadly, I don't have a good answer.

 

[slappy52]

GoingEarly,

We are mid-50's and the Farm Bureau plan is about $450/month for an HSA plan with a $5000 deductible. No lifetime maximum, prescription drug coverage, they can't drop you if your health changes. It's a standard united healthcare group plan. It is not ACA compliant though because they could charge more or not accept you due to pre-existing conditions. Try getting a quote at https://www.infbhealthplans.com. The quote is available online without needing to talk to sales person.

The Indiana legislature passed a bill last year (SEA 184) allowing specifically the farm bureau to sell health plans. Health coverage is a problem for farmers since many are set up as sole proprietorships and they can't buy a group plan for 1 person. The farm bureau does not require or care if you are a farmer as long as you get a $30 membership.

 

[GoingEarly2022]

Slappy52,

Thanks for the information. I contacted the local Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance office. The agent was very helpful and also told me to go to the website to research and quote. I picked the HSA 5000 deductible with Dental & Vision and for the wife and I came up to a total of $669.00 per month.
I printed out all of the information to go over it with my wife.

I have a year or a little more before I retire so I'll continue to research and gather options for retirement.

Thanks to all for your input