Another grey haired laid off team member - err employee. Severance and benefits run out next month. I have 5 years until Medicare. Very happy with AETNA/BC/BS higher use plan. Retiree is United Health Care and I am eligible but have no subsidy. If I went COBRA, I would then need ACA for 3.5 years. Does anyone have an informed view on the retiree health plan or been in this similar situation? Would appreciate hearing your views.
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I got laid off at 60. swallow your pride and apply for state Medicaid. You've earned it and it's free. Plus better care anyway. your welcome.
Been there done that already. The retiree health plan is in line with what you can get from ACA at your current income level. COBRA is about half that. Mine was $522 a month. I took COBRA for 18 months and then went to ACA for 8 months before Medicare kicked in. The ACA was only $477 a month as I did what others have suggested here and used money from post tax savings to pay bills and left my retirement money alone. I had only SSA income so lower ACA payments. Now on Medicare I pay $386 a month for part A, B supplemental and D. I am not a big user of medical services so comfortable with high deductibles.
The rates are clearly listed in the Preparing to Retire document. Everyone has their own definition of insanely expensive. I reached out to a HC broker. He told me he could touch the quality of the HSA plan at the Cobra price. ACA subsidies can help if you manage to control your income, but that’s not going to work for late year retirements. I also believe they may look back 2 years. Nobody can know what’s best for your particular situation, so gather all the facts and make your choice. Best of luck.
For completely subsidized (su-k off the taxpayers) Obummer care, all you need to do is keep your income below a certain level (50k), there is no asset test. So you can pull from your savings or Roth (zero taxable income) or your IRA/401k.
I know someone will correct me if I don’t have this right, but I thought Wells Fargo ended retiree healthcare benefits. Also, that retiree portion was extremely high compared to an active employee. Sound right?
Everyone I know who retired from WF said COBRA was insanely expensive.
For ACA you can quickly and easily see the plans available to you and an estimate of you costs here. It is based on income not assets. https://www.healthcare.gov/see-plans/#/
ACA expensive as he-l for you (I’m assuming you have some assets and cash flow since no subsidy) AND the deductible is crazy high. If you have 15k for a family plan for next five years then you should be good to go with it.
There isn’t a broad “retiree” plan for health insurance. You have to have worked for some specific businesses, prior to a specific year. (I called to understand this, since I am “retirement eligible” and evaluating when I will retire).
OP if you dont know if you are covered/included, you should call… but given what I heard, it’s a very small population. I hope you are one of the lucky ones.
Be careful. The retiree plan is a "retiree only" plan and not the same as our active or Cobra health coverage. The retiree health plan is exempt from the Affordable Care Act and it's provisions and protections. Check very carefully that any medications or treatments you are receiving today would be covered. Don't assume that because it's a Wells Fargo sponsored plan that it is equivalent to your current coverage. It is not.