Health Insurance question

[cjacks]

I am going to be 62 in July. My plan to retire is sometime in 2013,so I am going to have to pay for health insurance for awhile. One of my scenarios has me doing a low stress part time job for a couple of years. I have found some places offering health insurance packages to part time employees. Can anyone tell me if that benefit will be considered income? Thanks!
CJ

 

[Buckeye]

I've never had health insurance be considered as income. Maybe it is for some exec's that have cadillac plans but not for the average person.

Is COBRA an option?

 

[Alan]

I am going to be 62 in July. My plan to retire is sometime in 2013,so I am going to have to pay for health insurance for awhile. One of my scenarios has me doing a low stress part time job for a couple of years. I have found some places offering health insurance packages to part time employees. Can anyone tell me if that benefit will be considered income? Thanks!
CJ

I don't know for certain. I do know that the 5 full time companies that DW, DS and I have worked for all provided employee group health insurance and it was never considered as income. All the companies provided life insurance and this was taxed as income.

I would be surprised to find that HI packages offered through part-time employment would be considered as income.

 

[cjacks]

Yes, cobra is an option, but I am fairly certain buying a plan thru aarp is alot cheaper. I also think the plans these part time packages offer, requires you to pay a portion of the premium. I read somewhere that they expect more private plans to be offered in the next couple years. I am not real excited about working a part time job but at this point I am just exploring my options.

 

[Buckeye]

Are you insurable? Pre-existing conditions?

Can you manage the deductible of a high deductible policy for a couple of years prior to starting Medicare? If you aren't a high consumer of healthcare you may not use much of your deductible but if something catastrophic happens, you'll have approximately 2 years (and 2 deductibles) until Medicare takes over.

DH (62) and I (53) have a high deductible policy with Humana with a family deductible of $11,900 with $0 copay after the deductible is met. We do not have pre-existing conditions so our monthly premium is $339. We are in the tenth month of our first year so I can't tell you anything about the size of the annual premium increases. Again, you'll only have to deal with increases for about 2 years.

 

[zinger1457]

I worked half time during my last year of work and it wasn't considered income. Generally the premium you would have to pay for insurance through your employer is different for part time and full time employees. Someone working half time may only get half of the normal employer contribution to health insurance, you would have to make up the difference.

 

[pb4uski]

I am going to be 62 in July. My plan to retire is sometime in 2013,so I am going to have to pay for health insurance for awhile. One of my scenarios has me doing a low stress part time job for a couple of years. I have found some places offering health insurance packages to part time employees. Can anyone tell me if that benefit will be considered income? Thanks!
CJ

No, employer provided health insurance is not considered income. In fact for many plans, the employee contribution is an offset to income. So for example, if your gross pay is 10,000 and your contribution to your health insurance is 1,000, your taxable wages would only be 9,000.

They may change it, but that is the way it is for now.

 

[Alan]

No, employer provided health insurance is not considered income. In fact for many plans, the employee contribution is an offset to income. So for example, if your gross pay is 10,000 and your contribution to your health insurance is 1,000, your taxable wages would only be 9,000.

That is how it was with me when I was working.

Even though I have group retiree insurance through the same employer, and it is deducted from my pension check, it is now after tax rather than before tax. I also now have no FSA, which was another nice tax dodge as an employee.

Look out for the possibility of an FSA with a part-time job, there might be one available.

 

[Chicken-carbonara]

Health insurance is not included as income and is a rare benefit to part time workers. So if you can find part time employment with free health insurance, you can certainly think of it as income, but the IRS will not.