Health insurance ??!!??
Hello all, MY wife and I are down to about 6 months till she retires. We are working on the details now. But I almost fell to the floor when I heard what it is going to cost in health insurance. Th...
Forum Discussion
We retired on December 31, 2013. We waited until that time because we could not afford health insurance before the ACA fully implemented. Our COBRA plan was $1000+ for a blue cross HMO plan. We looked at the ACA plans and selected one that is better than the plan we had (it is a national network PPO). We are now paying $550/month for both of us for a Silver Blue cross plan. This price is without subsidies - we are unsure of what our income will be over the year and so will get a tax deduction if we made less than 400% of poverty level.
We are currently Maryland residents - the rate we pay is based on being Maryland residents. Over the past month, I have priced very similar plans in Texas, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Arizona, and Tennessee. The prices are as follows:
AZ - 380, NV - 387, SD - 386, TN - 290, MD - 274, NM - 282, FL - 350, TX - 345
The rates were very dependent on the county in which I was searching (in TN alone, the price varied by as much as $100/month.) These prices are per person. Please note that we were searching for a national plan and looked for BCBS in most cases as we are very familiar with their national plan. Some insurance, such as that of South Dakota, is very limited in their network and the plan would have been pretty useless to us. These rates were found using the BCBS website with the exception of South Dakota and Nevada (if I remember correctly). The best plan was in Tennessee. It has a $3K deductible and a $3K out of pocket max - it pays 100% of in network charges after meeting deductible.
I hope this information can help you. It really requires a lot of internet searching to figure out what you want and see how much you will have to pay. The easiest way to get an idea might be to try http://www.ehealthinsurance.com/. You will need a zip code when checking prices. With a general idea of the charges, you can then begin to decide where to reside. For now, we are staying Maryland residents until the new plans roll out in October for 2015.
Good luck! It is not easy to get through, particularly since it is new and untested. Not many are fulltiming under medicare age so the information isn't yet out there.
We are currently Maryland residents - the rate we pay is based on being Maryland residents. Over the past month, I have priced very similar plans in Texas, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Arizona, and Tennessee. The prices are as follows:
AZ - 380, NV - 387, SD - 386, TN - 290, MD - 274, NM - 282, FL - 350, TX - 345
The rates were very dependent on the county in which I was searching (in TN alone, the price varied by as much as $100/month.) These prices are per person. Please note that we were searching for a national plan and looked for BCBS in most cases as we are very familiar with their national plan. Some insurance, such as that of South Dakota, is very limited in their network and the plan would have been pretty useless to us. These rates were found using the BCBS website with the exception of South Dakota and Nevada (if I remember correctly). The best plan was in Tennessee. It has a $3K deductible and a $3K out of pocket max - it pays 100% of in network charges after meeting deductible.
I hope this information can help you. It really requires a lot of internet searching to figure out what you want and see how much you will have to pay. The easiest way to get an idea might be to try http://www.ehealthinsurance.com/. You will need a zip code when checking prices. With a general idea of the charges, you can then begin to decide where to reside. For now, we are staying Maryland residents until the new plans roll out in October for 2015.
Good luck! It is not easy to get through, particularly since it is new and untested. Not many are fulltiming under medicare age so the information isn't yet out there.
