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We bailed out in 2000; COBRA ran out 18 months later. We shopped thoroughly in our new state, and found an NC BC/BS. However, due to cost then, (and especially now), we chose Major Medical only, with a ~$5000+ deductible. We are not weekly doctor goers, as most anything under that Catastrophic hurdle is on our dime.
We paid ~$400 a month for myself & wife, starting back in 2001. We now pay ~$800 month for the privilege. Shopping for MajMed was time consuming, and the plethora of plans were very difficult to compare, then.
So, bottom line, we are paying ~$10Gs a year for MajMed/$5G Ded and waiting on Medicare for the past decade, with another year and a half to go.
GL, mD
My husband (60) and I (53) retired last year. Although I had worked for the state for 35 years, I didn't keep the low-cost employer-subsidized insurance the state offered because the network was limited to providers within the state; since we intended to move out of state, our cost for my employer's insurance would have been triple what we'd pay if we stayed in-state (approximately $700 per month just for me).
I also considered getting insurance just for me with Aetna through my professional association (I'm a member of the state bar). The cost for that would have been $500 per month for a high-deductible policy, plus we would have had to pay $400 per month for my husband to continue with his employer's insurance. We decided to add me as a dependent to my husband's insurance, as the monthly premium for both of us would be $750.
I may have made the wrong choice. Although our monthly premium stayed at $750 for the rest of 2010, on January 1 this year it went up to $1000. I expect it will just continue to go up. It's no longer true that what goes up must come down.
One thing you have to relise is that dependent cobergae ofte drive mnay cost. That is why actaully increasingit above i the healthcare manadtes drievup cost.Also chnaging liabilty form say 1 millio /2 miilio lifetiem liablity alos drives up the cost when its mandated unlimited lifetime. that is especailly ture i todays high tech/high cost medeical envoronment.The onlt way to reallt keep cost dow othsoe is to deny those advances much less the experimental ones poften denied now i treatent and drugs as determined by standard nedical practice.Bascially mnay wll be seeing the standards of treatment reallt chnage and treatment by denad changing i the new standards to save on cost. Strange thatit really wil come form governmen this time around.Its strange to me that people really beleive that 500 billion if taken from medicare ;for example;wuld make a huge differcnce and that govwernamnt wil find savings other than denial of treatment even more than most with insurnace are use to now.They in fact are now driving insurnace cost. If you beleieve they are goig to find those so called savings loo at te histroy of governamnt programs when passed with so called savings as part of payment cost.
While I took the early out @ age 49, when HSA WAS an option... I will probably be
#1 taking PT employment that offers HC
#2 go 'un-insured' and use foreign countries for services
#3 Move to a foreign county (likely Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand ...)
i.e. http://www.city-data.com/forum/18127317-post2239.html
My husband (60) and I (53) retired last year. Although I had worked for the state for 35 years, I didn't keep the low-cost employer-subsidized insurance the state offered because the network was limited to providers within the state; since we intended to move out of state, our cost for my employer's insurance would have been triple what we'd pay if we stayed in-state (approximately $700 per month just for me).
I also considered getting insurance just for me with Aetna through my professional association (I'm a member of the state bar). The cost for that would have been $500 per month for a high-deductible policy, plus we would have had to pay $400 per month for my husband to continue with his employer's insurance. We decided to add me as a dependent to my husband's insurance, as the monthly premium for both of us would be $750.
I may have made the wrong choice. Although our monthly premium stayed at $750 for the rest of 2010, on January 1 this year it went up to $1000. I expect it will just continue to go up. It's no longer true that what goes up must come down.
Another example of how sick our system is.
Best wishes, along with the rest of us, keeping up.
We could as mentioned go back to the days of major medical only coverage which was the noram even for employers not that long ago. It was also called hospitlaiztion by mnay. Nothing for drugs or out of hospital treatment tho.
Basically the usual places in my region are Universities, Schools (some), Costco, Starbucks, Whole Foods, Nordstrom, Nike, REI, various other benevolent businesses (who(m*) I am more frequent to patronize whenever possible )
*... hum... 'Businesses' = Subject or object? (I will GUESS ... subject ... a bit of a stretch for an 'engineering mind')
How do I Pay NOW!!! - very painfully
Last edited by StealthRabbit; 03-07-2011 at 02:42 PM..
Basically the usual places in my region are Universities, Schools (some), Costco, Starbucks, Whole Foods, Nordstrom, Nike, REI, various other benevolent businesses (who(m*) I am more frequent to patronize whenever possible )
*... hum... 'Businesses' = Subject or object? (I will GUESS ... subject ... a bit of a stretch for an 'engineering mind')
Actually it's an object the way you used it in the sentence (object of the verb patronize), but you could have avoided the dilemma by using "which", as who/whom are normally used for people.
My wife and I, both of pretty good health and recently retired at 62, think we can afford to pay the basics (yearly physical and lab tests, etc.) directly out of pocket, so recently we applied for Catastrophic / high deductable health insurance with Humana. The deductable we chose was $7500. Humana first quoted $380/month premiums, which seemed affordable to us, but then when it can time to sign the bottom line to start coverage, Humana switched the costs per month to $680. I don’t recommend dealing Humana.
We are now applying for an even higher deductable ($10K, 80/20 plan) with Golden Rule offered by United Health which starts at around $320/month, but we’ll see what the final quote is. The deductable seems high but at least we won’t lose our house should one of us get really sick, and, further, the high deductable plans do pay for “preventive care” visits and tests. So we’ll see what Golden Rule offers.
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... subject ... a bit of a stretch for an 'engineering mind')
