Are you eligible for insurance from a prior employer's plan?
We covered the gap between end of employment and Medicare (7 years for me, 8 for my wife). It was a PPO administered for the company by Aetna, "traditional" plan with 20% my share, 50% out of network, very high deductibles and out of pocket caps, but 100% coverage for extensive preventive care (like immunizations and annual checkups). When we were both on it, my premium cost was about $1600 a month, down to $1200 for just her, as much as $2200 when I carried my daughter on the plan.
So about $20,000 a year in premiums, another $2000 to $3000 out of pocket when things were going well. When they weren't, the insurance company came through, paying out about $800,000 over the last three years of my wife's life, but even so my out of pocket medical costs hit $40,000 a couple of years with things the insurance company wouldn't pay, because MD Anderson does not limit their treatment options to only those things insurers consider medically appropriate.
If you want to travel, you need to find a domicile where you can connect with a provider having a large network. I don't know just what that would be now, since ACA forces individual state coverage in places where national coverage used to be available.
If you think $400 a month is expensive, you'll be in for a shock. Only people I know with premiums that low are those for whom someone else is paying the other 50 to 80% of the premium for them. When two of you get to Medicare, you are going to find your premiums something over $400 a month if you want extensive supplemental coverage and Part D.
Tom Test
Itasca Spirit 29B
