Holy Cow - Health Insurance Premiums are nuts in AK (Anchorage: 2014, subsidized)

[Dloop]

My wife and I are considering retiring to Alaska (before medicare eligible) and as we are doing our research we were really surprised to discover that AK had the highest health insurance premiums in the country. Coming from Washington state, our premiums would more than triple.

Are there any creative strategies that folks found to help work with this, other than going back to work and getting and employer subsidized plan? We were hoping to retire afterall

thanks.

[RayinAK]

Originally Posted by Dloop

My wife and I are considering retiring to Alaska (before medicare eligible) and as we are doing our research we were really surprised to discover that AK had the highest health insurance premiums in the country. Coming from Washington state, our premiums would more than triple.

Are there any creative strategies that folks found to help work with this, other than going back to work and getting and employer subsidized plan? We were hoping to retire afterall

thanks.

And it will be more expensive as Obamacare is fully implemented.

My insurance cost increased 265% two years ago, and the deductible when I go to a clinic, for example, is over $1,100 (about $2,200 for my wife and I). We have employers subsidized plans. It not longer matters, since Obamacare screwed things up for State workers and not. Insurance premiums have increased for the past five years, even for Federal workers, but the highest increases have been with employer-subsidized plans.
http://nypost.com/2014/07/03/how-oba...b-based-plans/

[riceme]

My healthcare cost jumped way up at the beginning of this year... and I'm going to have to pay the deductibles twice right out of the gates because I'm changing jobs on 25 January.



There's a guy up at the mine who has 10 kids and his premium is only $50 more per month than mine, a single person.

[Dakster]

Originally Posted by riceme

My healthcare cost jumped way up at the beginning of this year... and I'm going to have to pay the deductibles twice right out of the gates because I'm changing jobs on 25 January.



There's a guy up at the mine who has 10 kids and his premium is only $50 more per month than mine, a single person.

Wonder what he does in is his spare time? (rhetorical question)

Congrats on changing jobs, I assume that is for the better, riceme?

Yeah, premiums are crazy, out of pockets nuts, quality of care is debatable at times, getting an appointment can take forever...

Answer, but not really a solution: Some people plan trips out of Alaska to get routine/annual healthcare. And only use AK for emergency room type stuff. To an extent we do that, until my son got some acute issues that needed followup on a monthly basis. So we just had to deal with it... Otherwise, summer trips to the L48 to escape the hoards of tourons coming to AK are good times to see a Doctor... And yes, I was a tourist at one point myself.

If you mind me asking who are you getting coverage through? And assuming you make too much for any type of subsidy? (Welcome to my world - where I make just enough to not qualify)

[AKStafford]

My boss pays for insurance for me. It has a $2,500 deductible, but its better than nothing.
For the wife, we just pay the 2.5% fine/tax/penalty for not having insurance. Way cheaper than paying premiums for her.

[Oklahomagirl74]

Originally Posted by riceme

My healthcare cost jumped way up at the beginning of this year... and I'm going to have to pay the deductibles twice right out of the gates because I'm changing jobs on 25 January.



There's a guy up at the mine who has 10 kids and his premium is only $50 more per month than mine, a single person.

Why would you have to pay the deductible twice? That makes no sense unless you have major surgery while still insured on the first plan.

[riceme]

Originally Posted by Dakster

Wonder what he does in is his spare time? (rhetorical question)

Congrats on changing jobs, I assume that is for the better, riceme?

Yeah, premiums are crazy, out of pockets nuts, quality of care is debatable at times, getting an appointment can take forever...

Answer, but not really a solution: Some people plan trips out of Alaska to get routine/annual healthcare. And only use AK for emergency room type stuff. To an extent we do that, until my son got some acute issues that needed followup on a monthly basis. So we just had to deal with it... Otherwise, summer trips to the L48 to escape the hoards of tourons coming to AK are good times to see a Doctor... And yes, I was a tourist at one point myself.

If you mind me asking who are you getting coverage through? And assuming you make too much for any type of subsidy? (Welcome to my world - where I make just enough to not qualify)

The guy with 10 kids is one of the kindest, neatest people I've ever worked with and he has kids that are around my niece's age, so I always see him and his herd at her ballet & piano recitals.

Thanks, yes it is definitely a positive change.

Insurance at the mine is through Aetna (that's the one that jumped way up) and insurance at Banner is through Banner. With Aetna we could go to Anchorage or Seattle if we chose to and with Banner we can go to Colorado (which seems a strange choice to me).

No, I don't qualify for any subsidies.

[riceme]

Originally Posted by Oklahomagirl74

Why would you have to pay the deductible twice? That makes no sense unless you have major surgery while still insured on the first plan.

Because I am changing employers and will have a different insurance carrier. I did just have surgery in October and am in PT 3X/wk, so I pretty much had to pay the deductible all at once. And I will have to pay it again as soon as I begin at the new physical therapist because of course my current physical therapist does not take my new insurance and the out of network cost is astronomical.

[RayinAK]

It will get worst for working folks who have employer-subsidized plans, unless Obamacare is reversed. The plan is to have employer-subsidized health insurance plans abolished by the early 2020's.

I am not a Republican, nor a Democrat, so I am not saying things like this (above) because of politics. As I mentioned before, my health insurance went up 265% two years ago. It does not matter if a State worker belongs to the union or not, and that's why the unions are now whining, something they din't do when "The Affordable Healthcare Plan" started.

[Metlakatla]

Listening to Michael Savage again, I see...


pffft