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I did the same thing for one person in my county and came out with $622 a month. for a silver plan. Did it for a few miles away in another state, $905. Wow, quite a difference.
I'm assuming you live in Vermont based on your user name. Vermont and New York are the only two states that have laws prohibiting age to be used as a factor when determining ACA premium prices.
New York actually has some decent options for retiring before Medicare. There's a state COBRA extension plan that lets you stay on your COBRA medical (not dental, though) for an additional 18 months beyond the federal 18 months. I'm nearing the end of my 3 years on COBRA now and will need to switch over to an ACA plan this summer. I'm not going to worry about subsidies this year, but since I'll be ACA for a full year next year, I'll try to structure my income so I stay right below the cliff to qualify for the minimum subsidy.
If you can keep your income low enough, I don't know of many plans that beat the NY Essential plan, which is a filler between Medicaid and the ACA plans. Plan premiums range from $0-20/mo/person depending on your income. A family of two needs to be below 32,920 right now to qualify.
Yes, it does sound as though you are in the top 5% of all Americans. Congratulations on building such a large investment portfolio.
One question: You decided to "chance it" and go without medical insurance for three years, while protecting your assets from medical claims via a trust. If you had gotten in an accident or developed a medical condition that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, who exactly would have paid your bills to the hospital?
We would have negotiated the bills down as low as possible, set up a payment plan, and then used our HSA of ~$50,000 until it was zero'd out, and not pay the balance.
We had insurance our entire lives until AHA came along, and we were kicked to the curb, so I'd have no remorse not paying for medical bills. Our credit rating would go from 820 to 600, we'd have to change to pay as you go phones w/ new undisclosed phone numbers to shake collection calls, our car insurance would have risen, but life would have gone on.
Remember, they cannot refuse you medical treatment under any circumstances...even when the government screws up the healthcare coverage you were prefectly happy with. All they can do is ruin your credit rating and hassel you with collections. Neither of those woud impact us.
It certainly won't erase all your health care worries, but living closer to the Mexican Border will definitely help! That's why I moved to Tucson, just one hour away!
One of the problems with healthcare in the US is that it is a major component of our economy at 17.9% of GDP. That is a lot of money floating a lot of investments and jobs. In contrast, Germany, which has the highest spending in the EU, is at 11.1% of GDP and Japan spends 8.5%. So we spend over 60% more than the most expensive country in Europe and over double that of Japan yet are ranked much lower than both of those countries in various studies.
Unfortunately there is too much money in the business of healthcare for the focus to be on the patient and keeping their costs low. The status quo is maintained with pride and fear statements such as "ours is the best" or "united healthcare is socialism."
One thing that many people forget is that before the ACA, in addition to tens of millions of people who had no coverage at all, many insurance companies were also denying coverage to people for a number of pre-existing conditions as well as charging people considerably higher rates which excluded their condition. Seeing as 36% of adults would be recommended for blood pressure meds and 55% for cholesterol, do we really want to return to a place where a substantial number of people would be denied insurance and be subject to much higher rates? Having a universal plan, such as Medicare, increases the risk pool and decreases overall costs for the population as a whole.
Medicare works for people 65 and older. It could work for people under 65. There is no reason why the US can't figure out how to provide affordable healthcare for everyone in a similar fashion to Europe or Japan.
One of the problems with healthcare in the US is that it is a major component of our economy at 17.9% of GDP. That is a lot of money floating a lot of investments and jobs. In contrast, Germany, which has the highest spending in the EU, is at 11.1% of GDP and Japan spends 8.5%. So we spend over 60% more than the most expensive country in Europe and over double that of Japan yet are ranked much lower than both of those countries in various studies.
Unfortunately there is too much money in the business of healthcare for the focus to be on the patient and keeping their costs low. The status quo is maintained with pride and fear statements such as "ours is the best" or "united healthcare is socialism."
One thing that many people forget is that before the ACA, in addition to tens of millions of people who had no coverage at all, many insurance companies were also denying coverage to people for a number of pre-existing conditions as well as charging people considerably higher rates which excluded their condition. Seeing as 36% of adults would be recommended for blood pressure meds and 55% for cholesterol, do we really want to return to a place where a substantial number of people would be denied insurance and be subject to much higher rates? Having a universal plan, such as Medicare, increases the risk pool and decreases overall costs for the population as a whole.
Medicare works for people 65 and older. It could work for people under 65. There is no reason why the US can't figure out how to provide affordable healthcare for everyone in a similar fashion to Europe or Japan.
Or are you just interested in scoring unhelpful political points?
At 55 the options for the OP are very limited. I was only able to do so because I was able to go on my spouse's plan. My previous employer offers coverage until 65 at full cost but for me alone it would be over $12,000 per year with a $2000 deductible and $6000 cap. Since that is nearly 35% of my pension it wouldn't work. ACAs are higher because of my working spouse. The reality is if I wasn't able to go on my spouse's plan I would have never been able to retire at 55.
The OP's options are limited to paying the market rate where they live or moving somewhere else where health insurance works better with their budget with or without ACA. If that doesn't work then the OP will have to find at least a part-time job that provides affordable healthcare (if possible). Additionally, the OP needs to evaluate if the part-time jobs are worse than the job they are currently doing.
Unfortunately, this problem for the OP and others won't be solved unless things change from the way they are now. It is unsustainable.
Someone above said they would be paying $290,000 for medical insurance prior to medicare. I can do a lot of travel and other things I enjoy with that amount of money versus buying insurance! I'll stick with the plan my husband and I have to keep working and travel as much as possible now and spend our money for the fun stuff! We can wait to retire until medicare and still enjoy life.
I'm assuming you live in Vermont based on your user name. Vermont and New York are the only two states that have laws prohibiting age to be used as a factor when determining ACA premium prices.
New York actually has some decent options for retiring before Medicare. There's a state COBRA extension plan that lets you stay on your COBRA medical (not dental, though) for an additional 18 months beyond the federal 18 months. I'm nearing the end of my 3 years on COBRA now and will need to switch over to an ACA plan this summer. I'm not going to worry about subsidies this year, but since I'll be ACA for a full year next year, I'll try to structure my income so I stay right below the cliff to qualify for the minimum subsidy.
If you can keep your income low enough, I don't know of many plans that beat the NY Essential plan, which is a filler between Medicaid and the ACA plans. Plan premiums range from $0-20/mo/person depending on your income. A family of two needs to be below 32,920 right now to qualify.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lincolnian
At 55 the options for the OP are very limited. I was only able to do so because I was able to go on my spouse's plan. My previous employer offers coverage until 65 at full cost but for me alone it would be over $12,000 per year with a $2000 deductible and $6000 cap. Since that is nearly 35% of my pension it wouldn't work. ACAs are higher because of my working spouse. The reality is if I wasn't able to go on my spouse's plan I would have never been able to retire at 55.
The OP's options are limited to paying the market rate where they live or moving somewhere else where health insurance works better with their budget with or without ACA. If that doesn't work then the OP will have to find at least a part-time job that provides affordable healthcare (if possible). Additionally, the OP needs to evaluate if the part-time jobs are worse than the job they are currently doing.
Unfortunately, this problem for the OP and others won't be solved unless things change from the way they are now. It is unsustainable.
Nobody has the right to retire at 55. If things work out for you then that’s ok. What’s next, people are going to complain they can’t not retire at 45, 35, 25. Several of your posts should belong to the political section.
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