Anyone who has retired early have any advice on where to obtain quality healthcare coverage, aside from Cobra and Obamacare? Planning my early escape, looking for healthcare options.
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@4hqg: COBRA is simply a continuation of your existing Honeywell coverage for up to 18 month. There is nothing an insurance broker can do for you.
The difference is you pay the entire cost of the Honeywell health plan as opposed to when you were employed and Honeywell paid a part of it. I used it after my severance period ended when I left on a voluntary RIF in 2018 for retirement and my COBRA coverage was about $520/month for myself at that time.
Medicare for all will not be implemented. If it does you will be Paying 40% in your taxes to pay for this astronomical plan. Many providers in AZ are not contracted with Obamacare. Go on Cobra and get yourself a broker to help navigate. AZ doesn’t have many options. The best option is to get another job until you retire or move to a state that had many more options
Check out your STD and LTD (if elected). If you are near retirement age and work d at HON for any length of time, you should have suffered heart attack, stroke or at least one form of mental illness/breakdown by now.
Cobra is a good option whilst examining options after it expires. Monthly Cobra premiums can be paid with HSA money which is not taxed.
If you retire early you won't need much healthcare- Your stress will dramatically decrease, you will sleep better and actually be happy. Those equate to a longer, happier and healthy life.... GET OUT NOW!
Depending on your household income, ACA can be expensive. There are Christian Care plans that are not "insurance," but are cost sharing plans. Unfortunately they often exclude pre-existing conditions for some period of time. I recommend finding a good health insurance broker to navigate the choices, as they vary widely by state.
Got RIFd in January and wife did too from different company. They (other company) is paying for our healthcare this year for both of us. And she only worked there 6 years vs my 30+ for Honeyhell. We can’t get ACA this year, but will probably do that for next 8 years to 65. Maybe Bernie will let me into Medicare early. A lot of us 50+ year olds got laid off.
I'm single and retired at 56 yo. I've been on the ACA for 6 years now. If your taxable income is low it's a great deal. The key is to be living on post tax dollars and supplement lightly with taxable income (i.e.,401k). I have no deductible and $32/month premium. Preexisting conditions are not a factor.
Quality? Only the ACA plans.
After getting laid off last year, and I'm 20 years from retirement age, I reviewed all the non-ACA "Trump" plans. They are easy to find on line.
Yes they are cheap $100-$200/month, but they do not allow any preexisting conditions at all. Any surgery of any kind in your life is generally a disqualifier. Over weight, disqualified. Ever been hospitalized for any reason, disqualified.
Also, they all are high deductible reimbursement only plans with caps. Meaning that you pay 100% out of pocket, and then must petition them to reimburse you after you spend your deductible. And if you have something really expensive like heart surgery, they will only reimburse to the cap of your plan. Typically a few hundred thousand.
Finally, they can drop you at any time if you get sick or hospitalized and start submitting monthly expenses.
With that said, I was able to find one trump plan that I passed all the pre existing conditions for. I only needed coverage for 1 month until I started my new job so I took that option in case I was in a car accident or something. For pr-scrip-ions I signed up with Good RX gold for $5. You have to move your pr-scrip-ions to pharmacies they use, generics only, but it was actually cheaper than Honeywell.
I would not recommend these insurance plans if you need coverage longer than 2-3 months or expext to go to a doctor regularly.
I retired on hubby's healthcare; he's 63. Bernie Sanders is planning for Medicare starting at age 50. If that happens, hubby is retiring too.
Another thing is to talk to your financial adviser if you have one. Mine says they have a guy at their firm who is adept at ferreting out the best policy. Kind of like hiring a car broker back in the day.