When will you be able to retire?

[Bestaluckcy]

For those of you who retired before 65 and without a health care package from your employer, what are the best options for purchasing insurance yourself? How expensive actually is it?

I was not eligible for the ACA so went with Cobra. It was expensive and only covered 18 months for single coverage. A single health policy was like $1700/mo. for me at the time through regular health insurance co. This was last decade so would have changed by now.

 

[Mr.G.Spot]

For those of you who retired before 65 and without a health care package from your employer, what are the best options for purchasing insurance yourself? How expensive actually is it?

Well, u just go to the open market and get bids. It is expensive. Depending on coverages and where you live, the annual costs for a couple will be $22 - $35,000 per year. Expensive band-aid until Medicare.

 

[madguy30]

Well, u just go to the open market and get bids. It is expensive. Depending on coverages and where you live, the annual costs for a couple will be $22 - $35,000 per year. Expensive band-aid until Medicare.

 

[cytor]

Damn that's tough. I've went through this with my mother, and they drained all of her money. It would be a lot more challenging for a couple.

Same thing happened to my mom. The Nursing Home basically said "How much $ do you have?"
She was in the Nursing Home for about 14 months and managed to take almost all of her money.

 

[CascadeClone]

Well, u just go to the open market and get bids. It is expensive. Depending on coverages and where you live, the annual costs for a couple will be $22 - $35,000 per year. Expensive band-aid until Medicare.

Insight from our small business- this is appx what our costs for older employees are (Wellmark BC/BS, pretty good plan and coverage). It's age dependent, so peoples' kids are only like $200 a month, but someone 60+ its over $1000 a month. Medical insurance is a HUGE cost for us.

What gets people is your employer usually pays a good chunk of that (maybe 80% is the norm? we pay 90 or 100% depending on which plan you take). So for a couple around retirement age you are used to paying maybe $500 a month, and then it goes to $2500 a month. I think as long as you plan for it in your calculations its just another expense. But people get sticker shock when they realize how much heath insurance (and ultimately the cost driver - medical care) actually is, after being shielded from it their entire lives because someone else is paying the bulk of it for them.

 

[Mr.G.Spot]

Insight from our small business- this is appx what our costs for older employees are (Wellmark BC/BS, pretty good plan and coverage). It's age dependent, so peoples' kids are only like $200 a month, but someone 60+ its over $1000 a month. Medical insurance is a HUGE cost for us.

What gets people is your employer usually pays a good chunk of that (maybe 80% is the norm? we pay 90 or 100% depending on which plan you take). So for a couple around retirement age you are used to paying maybe $500 a month, and then it goes to $2500 a month. I think as long as you plan for it in your calculations its just another expense. But people get sticker shock when they realize how much heath insurance (and ultimately the cost driver - medical care) actually is, after being shielded from it their entire lives because someone else is paying the bulk of it for them.

I agree. People either ignore or don't realize what their employer is contributing. It is a sticker shock and with insurance reform, people in this "gap years" went to market rates with the insurance reform. It does not get discussed much, but these gap years are pricey.

 

[ImJustKCClone]

I was not eligible for the ACA so went with Cobra. It was expensive and only covered 18 months for single coverage. A single health policy was like $1700/mo. for me at the time through regular health insurance co. This was last decade so would have changed by now.

Keeping your company plan post retirement isn't exactly cheap either. We bit the bullet and kept my ISU BC/BS for coverage because we wanted to use it as our secondary to Medicare when we got there...and if you give up your coverage plan with them, you can't buy back in later. So we paid full family premium for about 11 months until he turned 65, After that the premium was cut by 1/3 as my coverage was primary and his was now secondary. Three months later it dropped again, and now we pay 1/3 of our original premium post-retirement. I can honestly say that in the long run it has been worth it; we would be in massive medical debt without it.

 

[TornadoTouhou]

For those of you who retired before 65 and without a health care package from your employer, what are the best options for purchasing insurance yourself? How expensive actually is it?

So Iowa is a Medicaid expansion state, which means that if your income is low enough, you can qualify for Medicaid on income alone (this requires your income to be less than 138% of the federal poverty line, $21,597 in 2025). I've used it and it's good, there are zero premiums, co-pays, and deductibles, it can be a bit of a wait to find a doctor/dentist but if you can find one (which there is always at least one in all major cities) it's the best healthcare you can get.

Just about every state with Medicaid expansion has de facto universal healthcare though under an expensive implementation of the Bismarck model (RN every state except Kansas, Wyoming, Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida - Wisconsin has BadgerCare which is effectively the same).

That said, right now there may be work/"community engagement" requirements being added to Medicaid so it may not be so simple at least in the short term (though you could try to get around it with community service, education, or just helping family out). ACA will always be available as long as your MAGI is at least 100% of the federal poverty line (so: W-2, gig work, investment, interest, and Roth conversions all count) AND don't qualify for any other insurance (so if you are below 138% of the federal poverty line in an expansion state you get bumped to Medicaid). And of course there's the option to go to another country and retire there- I got a dual citizenship so this is one card I could play.