Healthcare

[fastd]

Please forgive this digression away from cars but I figure this is a good demographic to ask:

Anyone recommend healthcare insurance for an individual that is not old enough for Medicare? Anyone use the healthcare.gov gild policies? Are they any good.

Thank you.

[twobjshelbys]

"Obamacare" (healthcare.gov) is your best bet. You can try to price individual policies directly with places like United Healthcare but you'll find they have so-so premiums and exorbitant deductibles and copays (ie, they are catastrophic plans, OK for young healthy people with high incomes.)

We "retired" just at the time Obamacare became mandatory. We were also a few years shy of Medicare age. We had sold our house in Colorado and had no incentive to work, so we "lived off the house profits", had no income except manageable investment taxable income, and therefore qualified for the premium tax incentives. Obamacare is INCOME based, not ASSET based so if you can structure your income, Obamacare CAN be good insurance cheap. In our case, it was more than the equivalent coverage from my employer (our employer/spouse portion) but SIGNIFICANTLY less than COBRA (which is the employer plan entirely paid for out of pocket.)

[Anthony]

generally, you'll be better with a national based insurance company, with their PPO plans, such as BC/BS, Aetna, United Healthcare, Cigna, than other minor localized insurance companies, such that you will have more provider (doctors and facility) options, which is generally better. HMO's such as Kaiser, and other companies such as Cigna, United Healthcare, Aetna also have their HMO plans, but you have to stay in their networks, of which the national companies have better networks with more options.

Obama plans (legislation) mandated that private insurance companies offer low premium plans, which generally resulted in plans with higher deductibles and co-pays as compared to the insurance companies other plans, which the former is kind of what you don't want for "poorer" people.

Depends on how much you are willing to spend. Different plans may not affect what hospitals you can go to, but they definitely affect which physicians and other outpatient providers you can see and be covered. You generally get what you pay for.

[fastd]

I was thinking about the high premium Obamacare plans; private insurance is not really an option as pre-existing conditions exist for me.

Just wondering if anyone has a high premium (Gold or Platinum) plan and curious to know satisfaction level.

[eschaider]

Check out this alternative approach. I think you will find it quite interesting. Click here => Medi-Share


Ed

[ERA 626]

Kaiser.

[twobjshelbys]

Originally Posted by ERA 626

Kaiser.

It all depends on where you live... We don't have Kaiser here. Colorado did...

[fastd]

Originally Posted by eschaider

Check out this alternative approach. I think you will find it quite interesting. Click here => Medi-Share


Ed

Thanks Ed.

Have you used medishare?

[eschaider]

Originally Posted by fastd

Thanks Ed.

Have you used medishare?

Investigating it right now. Wife is a flight attendant for UAL and I have a small biz. I am in the benefits comparison and costing phase right now. No definitive answer quite yet but I do know it is way better than the Covered Cal / Obamacare alternative out here.


Ed