Going Full Time Soon - Health Insurance and Mail

[PlayaJilly]

Hello!

We're getting ready to hit to hit the road full time in September but I have lots of homework to do. I have been researching health insurance and how to get mail. I am hoping all you well seasoned full timers have some advice. We are both 55, if that matters.

Looking for recommendations on health insurance. How does it work when you are on the road? Do you have a company you like? We hated our PPO insurance, expensive and they don't cover much. I know a lot of carriers aren't great. We don't want obamacare. Looking for a PPO that is actually good. How does it work when you are travelling around? Do you need specific insurance that is multi-state.

Mail - what is the best way to get mail. I have a YouTube channel and often receive gifts from my fans. How do I do this on the road? Or any important mail.

Sorry if I am asking stupid questions. SO brand new and trying to understand everything way before we hit the road. I have been reading but would be so grateful for advice from folks actually on the road. So, thank you so much for your help!! Have a beautiful day!!

[Ro_n_Joe]

We use MyRvmail.com based in Crestview, Fl. They also handle Good Sams Mail. Florida is a good choice to set up a domicile especially if you're under 65 since the last I knew, SD and TX don't offer nationwide PPO health insurance coverage.
We purchased our health insurance via: https://www.rverinsurance.com/
We purchased our motorhome insurance via: http://www.millerrvinsurance.com/

[PlayaJilly]

camper19709 wrote:
I use St Brendan's Isle Mail Service in Florida. Great company. They may be able to help you find health coverage. I have medicare.

Thank you so much!

[PlayaJilly]

JimK-NY wrote:
Sorry I cannot help with medical, but I have a couple of recommendations for handling other issues.
1. Be very careful in picking your RV insurance company and policy. Most are not designed for a full timer and contents are minimally covered. There is a good reason for this since it avoids double coverage for most people because their homeowners or renters policy will cover contents.
2. You want to establish a mailing service in advance. Since you are currently in Idaho, I recommend South Dakota for residency and mailing service. You need to transfer at least your bank address a month or so in advance so you can bring in a statement with the SD address when you register with DMV. SD is very friendly for traveling residents: no income taxes, several good choices for mailing service, no annual vehicle inspections, low costs for vehicle insurance.
3. There are a lot of choices on how to get mail and packages from your mailing service. We traveled a lot so when we were in an area and ready for a mail drop, we emailed the service at least 2 days in advance. They forwarded with USPS priority mail.
4. You want to be as paperless as possible well in advance of traveling or changing your State for residency. It is pretty easy to set up paperless so your actual snail mail is close to unnecessary.
5. Never rely on the Post Office to forward mail. Weeks after our mail was supposed to be forwarded they were still leaving our mail in the old mailbox.
6. Again set up forwarding, paperless and everything else you will need at least a couple of months in advance. I remember finding somewhere around 50-60 places that we needed to notify for our change of address.
7. Be careful about the appearance of your new address. It will likely include a PMB (personal mailbox) number. Do not use PMB on your address. Just include the number as if it is an apartment number. Many financial institutions want an actual address and will not accept a PO Box. Don't lie but just avoid the issue.
8. I recommend you file IRS form 8822 for change of address. It is not absolutely necessary but is another means of documenting your change of address even though you will not be living in South Dakota.

Such great advice! Thank you so very much for your time, it is much appreciated.

[JimK-NY]

Sorry I cannot help with medical, but I have a couple of recommendations for handling other issues.
1. Be very careful in picking your RV insurance company and policy. Most are not designed for a full timer and contents are minimally covered. There is a good reason for this since it avoids double coverage for most people because their homeowners or renters policy will cover contents.
2. You want to establish a mailing service in advance. Since you are currently in Idaho, I recommend South Dakota for residency and mailing service. You need to transfer at least your bank address a month or so in advance so you can bring in a statement with the SD address when you register with DMV. SD is very friendly for traveling residents: no income taxes, several good choices for mailing service, no annual vehicle inspections, low costs for vehicle insurance.
3. There are a lot of choices on how to get mail and packages from your mailing service. We traveled a lot so when we were in an area and ready for a mail drop, we emailed the service at least 2 days in advance. They forwarded with USPS priority mail.
4. You want to be as paperless as possible well in advance of traveling or changing your State for residency. It is pretty easy to set up paperless so your actual snail mail is close to unnecessary.
5. Never rely on the Post Office to forward mail. Weeks after our mail was supposed to be forwarded they were still leaving our mail in the old mailbox.
6. Again set up forwarding, paperless and everything else you will need at least a couple of months in advance. I remember finding somewhere around 50-60 places that we needed to notify for our change of address.
7. Be careful about the appearance of your new address. It will likely include a PMB (personal mailbox) number. Do not use PMB on your address. Just include the number as if it is an apartment number. Many financial institutions want an actual address and will not accept a PO Box. Don't lie but just avoid the issue.
8. I recommend you file IRS form 8822 for change of address. It is not absolutely necessary but is another means of documenting your change of address even though you will not be living in South Dakota.

[camper19709]

I use St Brendan's Isle Mail Service in Florida. Great company. They may be able to help you find health coverage. I have medicare.

[Rice]

PlayaJilly wrote:
We don't want obamacare.

Why don't you want Obamacare? Maybe if we knew that, we could point you to some options that don't have whatever it is you don't like.

[TechWriter]

arhayes wrote:
You are actually asking very smart questions! For mail, there are several mail services that Full-timers use but the two I'm familiar with are:
- Escapees-Mail Service
- America's Mailbox - Americas Mailbox

We used a couple local, mom & pop mail forwarding services which worked just fine.

arhayes wrote:

Medical is trickier depending on your state and whether you can qualify for an Obamacare plan. You say you didn't want one, but insurance was cost prohitive when we retired as I wasn;t willing to pay $2500 a month for the two of us. We retired at 60 and hit the road, so had to go thru 5 years of scrambling for insurance because our retirement income was too high to get an ACA subsidy. if your retirement income will be below the threshhold (it was $63k - not sure if that's that same now) you may be in good shape.

When we started full timing, we used my company's COBRA health insurance for 18 months. It was a very good Blue Cross Blue Shield PPO plan that also included dental and vision benefits. This COBRA plan was $1100/month.

By comparison, we checked out other health care plans. This was a year before the ACA started. The best plan we could find cost about $700 a month and didn't have dental or vision coverage.

After that 18 months, I only needed individual health insurance for one month since I turned 65 and went on Medicare. However, my wife went on an AZ ACA (aka Obamacare) plan for about 2 years.

arhayes wrote:

Just make sure whatever plan you get would you would be in network in any state.

ACA plans are based on where you actually reside which may not necessarily be your domicile. Remember, ACA plans are Federal. Typically, under 65 full timers chose FL as their domicile because it is the only one of the "Big Three" (TX, SD, and FL) that still has nationwide PPO plans.

Besides the Big Three, there are several states that have nationwide PPO plans, like AK, AL, AR, CA, ND, and WY. However, in this list only AK and WY have no state income tax.

arhayes wrote:

We wound up using a Healthcare Sharing Ministry program that worked for us. It provided essentially the same poor coverage as ACA at less than half the cost. As an aside, I found that routine doctor visits cost me less by paying cash than using the insurance. We used GoodRX for routine prescriptions at reasonable prices.

The ACA was a lifesaver for my wife. She developed uterine cancer and her ACA health plan covered most of the expenses. Otherwise, we would have been out thousands of dollars.

Remember, that the ACA covers pre-existing conditions. Without that, my wife would have been without health insurance.

As a reminder, health sharing plans are not health insurance. They are not required to cover anything. Best you examine these plans VERY carefully.

arhayes wrote:

You need to look at legal Domicile issues if you think you may change state of residency for legal purposes. Again, Escapees has info on their website to give you some guidance.

Escapees is a fine organization. I've been a member for several years. However, their business includes TX, FL, and SD, and not other states. So getting reliable info from Escapees on other domicile states besides the Big Three will be challenging.

[PlayaJilly]

arhayes wrote:
You are actually asking very smart questions! For mail, there are several mail services that Full-timers use but the two I'm familiar with are:
- Escapees-***Link Removed***
- America's Mailbox - ***Link Removed***

Medical is trickier depending on your state and whether you can qualify for an Obamacare plan. You say you didn't want one, but insurance was cost prohitive when we retired as I wasn;t willing to pay $2500 a month for the two of us. We retired at 60 and hit the road, so had to go thru 5 years of scrambling for insurance because our retirement income was too high to get an ACA subsidy. if your retirement income will be below the threshhold (it was $63k - not sure if that's that same now) you may be in good shape. Just make sure whatever plan you get would you would be in network in any state. We wound up using a Healthcare Sharing Ministry program that worked for us. It provided essentially the same poor coverage as ACA at less than half the cost. As an aside, I found that routine doctor visits cost me less by paying cash than using the insurance. We used GoodRX for routine prescriptions at reasonable prices.

You need to look at legal Domicile issues if you think you may change state of residency for legal purposes. Again, Escapees has info on their website to give you some guidance.

Hope this gets you some info you can use.

You are a wealth of information, thank you so much!

[PlayaJilly]

lbrjet wrote:
Since you have been researching what else can you get besides Obamacare?

I am just getting started so nothing yet. I just know that is something I don't want.

[lbrjet]

Since you have been researching what else can you get besides Obamacare?

[Old-Biscuit]

I think FL is the only state that has Nationwide Option

SD & Tx are popular FT states as is FL

But being under 65/Medicare you should check out Escapees about Mail & Med Insurance Options
They are home based in TX but alos have Mail Forwarding Services in FL & SD

They can answer all your questions and set you up

[arhayes]

You are actually asking very smart questions! For mail, there are several mail services that Full-timers use but the two I'm familiar with are:
- Escapees-Mail Service
- America's Mailbox - Americas Mailbox

Medical is trickier depending on your state and whether you can qualify for an Obamacare plan. You say you didn't want one, but insurance was cost prohitive when we retired as I wasn;t willing to pay $2500 a month for the two of us. We retired at 60 and hit the road, so had to go thru 5 years of scrambling for insurance because our retirement income was too high to get an ACA subsidy. if your retirement income will be below the threshhold (it was $63k - not sure if that's that same now) you may be in good shape. Just make sure whatever plan you get would you would be in network in any state. We wound up using a Healthcare Sharing Ministry program that worked for us. It provided essentially the same poor coverage as ACA at less than half the cost. As an aside, I found that routine doctor visits cost me less by paying cash than using the insurance. We used GoodRX for routine prescriptions at reasonable prices.

You need to look at legal Domicile issues if you think you may change state of residency for legal purposes. Again, Escapees has info on their website to give you some guidance.

Hope this gets you some info you can use.