A question for you full timers

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mudshark

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 15, 2014
Posts
503
Hi All
The day is finally arriving!
Sold my house and paid off the mortgage on this one with some money left over to explore our beautiful country for a year, more or less. I turn 65 in July and will be going on Medicare. My wife has a number of years to go. Right now we have health insurance thru my wife's company. We will be loosing it when she gives her notice and leaves. We are trying to figure out medical insurance for her. We need something that we can use anywhere in the USA.

The bus is covered by car insurance and Coachnet. We have the AAA accident coverage that will cover hospital, doctors and rehab if needed. Need basic medical for her.
We are wondering what others in our situation are doing. Any ideas or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Jim & Jan

 
One of the most economical places is Medi-Share or something similar.
 
I assume you are aware that you can utilize COBRA coverage from your wife's plan to cover both of you until you go on Medicare.  It won't be cheap, but it will give you a chance to asses what to do for your wife after you leave the plan.  Although she could stay on COBRA for 18 months, she should be eligible to buy an ACA (Obamacare) plan which ought to be cheaper than what you are paying under COBRA.
 
BC/BS while not cheap probably has individual plans you can purchase.  At least they cover most of the country.  BTW, coverage costs vary widely, so start shopping for insurance in TX or FL for rates before you decide to head out.  You might find establishing residency in another state to your advantage.
 
Thanks
I will check out Medi-share.
Cobra is a bit pricey. Cost of policy plus 1% puts it out of our price range. Since DW has 10 years to go in the work force we only need something for a year. When we find a place to live down south she will have to go back to work and hopefully get insurance from her job.
 
Unfortunately, there's a lot of folks out there that have to work just for the health benefits. If health care were more affordable, it sure would be nice, but life is what it is.
 
Many parts of the country you will have NO options. Policies that work nationwide are simply not available many places. You are also in for some sticker shock.  A typical $4-5, 000 deductible with local coverage only may cost $7-900 per month. If  you can arrange to show a small income ACA will subsidize much of that.

We are in your position with two years to go and stuck with local coverage ACA policies only. To attain the subsidy, I set aside enough cash so that pension withdrawals combined with my Social Security check only show income of about $50, 000. At that level the subsidy is nearly 100%. Coverage amounts to major medical only, but that is sufficient for us. The catch is that we have to return home to use it! That is this year, next year who knows? Be VERY careful to ensure your position before committing.

Ernie
 
kdbgoat said:
If health care were more affordable, it sure would be nice, but life is what it is.

I agree, yet it is the most corrupt white collar crime our country has.  Will never get it fixed either, too deep into the politicians pockets.
 
Be careful about individual insurance in Texas. BC/BS only offers HMO coverage here for individual policies and that means you have to see a doctor in their system which is very regional. Because Texas bucked the ACA rules most of the carriers have dropped out and you're stuck with extremely high deductible expensive insurance unless you go HMO. Doctors avoid these plans because their office help spends inordinate amounts of time on working through the insurance companies many rules and restrictions. Ask me how I know.
Bob
 
I'll say something here which many may disagree with. Because of the really high premiums with huge deductibles my wife became self insured from 62-65 when she was then able to jump onto Medicare. She was and is very healthy and the risk of a catastrophic issue was remote. She had to see a doctor twice in two years for minor issues and cost was less than $400.

We are now both on Medicare advantage plans. Were their catastrophic plans to purchase like before the ACA, we might have considered one but paying close to $400 a month with a $7,000 deductible was not attractive in any way.

But that's our situation and it worked out fine.
 
We may be going that way, Bill and Debbie.
The quotes we are getting are insane. How did we get into such an insurance mess.
 
Ernie n Tara said:
ACA!

Ernie

+1  My wife had a full shoulder replacement last year and our out of pocket was around $400. 
She just had open heart surgery a couple of weeks ago, after a month in 5 different hospitals, and I haven't seen even a small bill yet(not holding my breath, I know the shoe will have to drop sometime).
 
When I retired at 62, I had a small clientele that I maintained websites for. That qualified my wife and I to join a NY State subsidized small business owners group insurance plan at a very reasonable cost. I also looked at a number of other group plans offered by various business associations that offered group plans, but the state plan was the best fit for us at the time. It could be worthwhile spending some time checking around to see what might be available in your area. I've even seen some social groups that offer health insurance through an affiliate. The Escapees RV Club for instance, offers a health insurance plan affiliated with the Independent Truckers Group that's compliant with the minimum essential coverage requirements of the ACA.

https://www.escapees.com/benefits/escapees-healthcare-solutions/
 
NY_Dutch said:
The Escapees RV Club for instance, offers a health insurance plan affiliated with the Independent Truckers Group that's compliant with the minimum essential coverage requirements of the ACA.

https://www.escapees.com/benefits/escapees-healthcare-solutions/

Be very very careful before choosing to go this route.

Its main reason for existence is so employers can offer something to their employees that will let the employer avoid the fines and penalties for not complying with the ACA. 

I've looked all over ITG's website and the Escapees site, and to be honest, I can't tell for sure what Escapees is offering.  It looks like it's only a plan that provides coverage for preventive care (not doctor visits when you're sick, or hospital coverage), and a separate indemnity plan, which is NOT insurance and which has restrictions on pre-existing conditions.  If you're even vaguely considering it, do your research on the difference between indemnity plans and insurance, and if you can't understand it, then steer way clear of indemnity plans.

The company that Escapees uses does offer a health insurance plan, but (1) it doesn't appear that you can get that through Escapees, and (2) I suspect you wouldn't want it even if you could.  In its marketing materials to employers (and don't forget that employees are the "customer" here, and not the people who need insurance (kind of like how Facebook's customers are its advertisers, not the people who have Facebook accounts)), it says although its health insurance plan "meets all ACA requirements and fully satisfies the employer?s responsibilities under the ACA, other plans, including those available on an unsubsidized basis from the public exchanges, frequently offer better value for employees...Historically, voluntary participation in [this plan] is very low." 

Holy cow.  It must be incredibly expensive to be a worse value than unsubsidized plans on the exchange.  But the goal isn't to provide insurance--it's for employers to have something to offer employees that will get the employer out of paying ACA penalties.

And again, it doesn't look like that's even available through Escapees.  All you can get there is a plan that covers preventive care, which most people would probably be willing to just pay for out of pocket.  And it offers an indemnity plan, which is not insurance, and has pre-existing conditions clauses.  And something called Health Assist, which provides only online doctor consultations.  None of this is anything like "health insurance" as most people understand it.
 
Ernie n Tara said:
ACA!

Ernie

The ACA did what it was intended to, and that is to provide health insurance for millions of Americans who did not have health insurance.  The reason for the need of the ACA(millions who could not afford health insurance) was not addressed in the ACA, nor has anyone before or since made any proposals as how to solve the underlying problem, and that is that there are no economic controls on the amount that providers charge.  Until that problem is addressed, health care costs will continue to skyrocket, ACA or not.  There is no free market forces at work in the health care business!
 
ACA actually mandated a number of services that are guaranteed to the user; that's not insurance, it's provision of a fixed service on, as you pointed out, a non competitive basis. In return the deductables went up by several thousand dollars making the policies essentially a catastrophic policy, that is quite expensive as compared to previous policies.

They then recovered the cost for mandated services by increasing rates. The coverage of pre-existing conditions is the only true benefit and that, in my opinion, should be covered by a separate pool.

Ernie
 
Of the top 3 states for full timers to set up a domicle (FL, TX & SD), only FL has a PPO managed care plan for your wife.  http://www.technomadia.com/blog/ recently did a review of setting up a domicle in FL.  Do a search on their site.
 
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