Medical insurance

[rodggang]

How do fulltimers afford health insurance if they are not retired and not at Medicare age?

Thanks

[Jim Stewart]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rodggang How do fulltimers afford health insurance if they are not retired and not at Medicare age? Thanks

We only part time but are retiring in January, we do not qualify for any retirement health insurance. My DW (62) and Myself (59), write a check every month for $1,600.00. It will keep going up every year by about 10%. I definitely do not want to wish our lives away, but financially, we will be glad to qualify for Medicare.

[beaverjim]

jim, i hate to say this but i've been complaining for yrs. about the cost of our health insurance i'm 58 and dw is 55 we pay approx 900.00 per mo. after reading your post i feel a little better! jim

[Jim Stewart]

Quote:

Originally Posted by beaverjim jim, i hate to say this but i've been complaining for yrs. about the cost of our health insurance i'm 58 and dw is 55 we pay approx 900.00 per mo. after reading your post i feel a little better! jim

Most Health Insurance goes up exponentially for older ages, with every 5 year age increment. When I hit 55 and my DW hit 60, we both were hit with huge incremental increases. We have another big jump coming when I turn 60.

A man of the same age is cheaper than a woman until age 60. At age 60, a man becomes more expensive than a woman. The typical premium difference in the 55 verses the 60 age bracket is 20-30%. Unfortunately, you may be in for some large increases.

Although I am not in favor of the New "Health Care Plan", the legislation helps deal with the huge premium discrepancy for sex and age. Interestingly enough, if the Senate and House develop a compromise bill that includes these anticipated provisions (both versions currently contain similar language), there will just be a cost shifting. Younger people will pay more to offset the current higher premiums for sex and age which will lower the costs for us pre-Medicare Seniors.

[rodggang]

Working in the healthcare profession, it still amazes me of how expensive it is for insurance. I total understand how people can not afford it. I guess our best option would be to con't with the Travel Nursing which I can get insurance for us both.

Do any of the workcamper jobs provide insurance? I figure they can not afford to provide it, but thought I would ask.

rodggang

[paz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rodggang How do fulltimers afford health insurance if they are not retired and not at Medicare age? Thanks

Full-timing may not make it any more difficult to afford health insurance than living in a stick house. In fact, it may make it easier. During the health care debate, there has been much talk of allowing the purchase of insurance across state lines as a way of reducing cost. As a full-timer, you can do just that by choosing which state you want to make your domicile. As long as you can meet residency requirements, you can pick any state you want. Unfortunately, some insurance companies won't insure full-timers (Blue Cross-Blue Shield in South Dakota, for example) because they are not "real" residents, but there are other companies and other states.

That being said, one way to reduce the cost of health insurance if you are in relatively good health is to buy just catastrophic protection with high deductibles and pay for some of the more predictable costs like office visits and routine tests out of pocket.

[Jim Stewart]

I do remember in the lat 90s when we fulltimed, I could not get private insurance due to my "size". When we changed our residence to our Mail Forwarding location, I qualified for the Texas high risk pool. When we checked, the rates were based on county of residence. From the highest rate to lowest rate, the premiums varied by as much as 30%. I assumed that the only reason was the cost of delivery was more or less in each county. One could assume that this would be true for many if not most carriers and may want to check with the carriers for various locations, even within the same State.

Health Carriers have very sophisticated models. They know the cost of delivery and certain diseases by location, average cost per person by age and sex and how to mess with you. When we started our annual comparison on our companies health plan, I found a good broker. He was very knowledgeable and said that the carriers charge an up-charge based on any given pools risk (age, sex and health). In the 10 years that he had been in business, he had never seen any small business group that had less than the maximum up-charge. The deck is stacked against you.

[read & learn]

We found out crossing State lines. Aetna which is nation wide Health Insurance writer will not let my wife use her insurance in 47 States.
That means if we go to a Dr in any State other than the 3 we are allowed to use it, we have to be "Self Pay" as the Dr calls it.
Now comes the math $135.00 bill we get back 80%, come to $108.00. Thats ok as co-pay is $20.00 so it costs us $7.00 more, but if the DR [yes] is a plan member he would only receive 40-50% of the $135.00, would not that be cheaper for the insurance company?????

[Doug Sage]

My wife and I are each 62 years old and have been full timing for over 2 1/2 years now. I used COBRA when I quit work and it lasted for 18 months. Then I switched to a family "group" plan with the same provider. They let us do this with a simple conversion of policy and no medical checkup or qualification. Our premium for both of us is $812 per month. We no longer have dental or prescription coverage at this rate. The policy covers us nationwide if we have a medical problem (such as a sinus infection, etc.) but does not cover the routine vaccinations and checkups except in the home territory. We go home once a year and have our medical checkups and get new prescriptions for our regular medications. This year the doctor found a heart valve problem on me which ballooned into needing open heart surgery and a triple bypass. I had all kinds of tests leading up to this and it cost me a co-pay of $20 per appointment and $1,000 for the entire surgery, hospitalization, etc. This is how insurance should work in my opinion.

[tworootless]

We don't! I use the VA, wife pays out of pocket. Mostly at womens clinics. Maybe it's time for CHANGE????????????????

[swamphog]

tworootless, I too use the VA, but was informed this October I will be on Medicare, part A,B, and what other parts there are.

[missourijan]

We are 59 & 52, fulltiming for 4 years. We have been purchasing the temporary 6 mo policies with high deductibles from Assurant. They also offer regular policies. We save a lot of $$$ with the temp policies but we are healthy, just take cholesterol medication and get the generic meds at Wal Mart for $4. We have a physical, lab tests & mammogram every year. It's a risk that if you do have an illness then you would not be able to get a "regular policy", glad that will change in 2014 (preexisting illness).

[btlabow]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jim stewart most health insurance goes up exponentially for older ages, with every 5 year age increment. When i hit 55 and my dw hit 60, we both were hit with huge incremental increases. We have another big jump coming when i turn 60. A man of the same age is cheaper than a woman until age 60. At age 60, a man becomes more expensive than a woman. The typical premium difference in the 55 verses the 60 age bracket is 20-30%. Unfortunately, you may be in for some large increases. Although i am not in favor of the new "health care plan", the legislation helps deal with the huge premium discrepancy for sex and age. Interestingly enough, if the senate and house develop a compromise bill that includes these anticipated provisions (both versions currently contain similar language), there will just be a cost shifting. Younger people will pay more to offset the current higher premiums for sex and age which will lower the costs for us pre-medicare seniors.

In Pa years ago they had different auto ins. rates for males and females under the age of 25. After many protests they equalized the system and charged everyone the higher male rate!!

[btlabow]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tworootless we don't! I use the va, wife pays out of pocket. Mostly at womens clinics. Maybe it's time for change????????????????

you're going to need part D which covers alot of the costs parts A & B don't cover. Start looking early it's confusing.