Health Insurance...

Just got a letter from the company I have been insured with (Grandfathered in prior to ACA) that my plan, which was $252 a month with incredible deductibles and coverages, is being discontinued Dec 31, 2024 and I will have to switch to another plan, which after I called them, goes up to about $500 a month!! Im 44 and have never smoked, no pre existing conditions. Jesus titty f*cking christ!

Me and the spouse own our own businesses, so I guess you could say self-employed. What do y'all in the same situation use for Health Insurance? Trying to avoid paying $500 a month for health insurance if I can avoid it. In Michigan if that matters....

 

I tell my shrink anything that comes to mind, for $175. a month. They dont take health insurance only cash.

 

First stop for me would be Healthcare.gov and taking a look at the available plans. When I was unemployed and browsing last year, they threw a bunch of options at various price points from various companies at me so there might be something that fits the bill there.

(Good ol ‘murican “freedom” sadly)

I’d guess the phone estimate was high by design or the designated successor plan wasn’t actually the true successor. Before I actually set the coverages I want, I’ve gotten ludicrous auto insurance estimates with every box ticked. I’m wondering if it works…

 

Self employed here also and am going through the same thing (Plans are once again changing), Currently the wife and I are close to $950 a month on what I can only describe as a "I will not go bankrupt if injured plan".
No idea what the upcoming plans will change. I am 52 by the way.

 

Mine is $815 for the wife and I. It's a high deductible plan which allows me to have an HSA, which deduction is tax exempt.

Edit to add, through my company.

 

Yeah, did that last night. Healthcare.gov told me that we make too much money for any kind of tax credit/discount, and since my plan expires 12-31-24, I am not eligible to apply right now, so it would not give me any pricing or plans even. LOL. But, I can try again on 11-1-24, when open enrollment begins.

So cool.

 

Sometimes I think it’s better to not have insurance.

go to the emergency room for anything. Sniffles, broken arm, whatever. They can’t refuse you. Don’t give them your ID, don’t give them your social and give em a fake name.
nothing they can do.

I don’t do this. I just worked in a hospital and experienced this shit all the time.

 

Currently paying $614 for COBRA to stay on my previous employers plan (single coverage). Not relevant to you, but just a data point for comparison. When that runs out I'll be digging into healthcare.gov

 

Dang..!!
Working in IT field I pay huge amount in monthly premium for health insurance (health + vision+ dental) and when my kids go to emergency it still cost arm and a leg. For 2 years straight I paid the max family deductible. (Could have used that money for a highend suspension install. LoL)
Sometimes I think to myself I should go to a government/federal job for a better retirement pay & health insurance at the cost of a lower pay.

 

$500 a month is dirt cheep for family. You are one lucky guy because i remember awesome coverage for way less (Before ACA) that's just impossible now.

Only way to go cheaper is become unemployed and homeless.

 

Even the government has shitty health insurance. My mom has a Coast Guard CIA retirement and they want $150k a year to take care of her. And there's nothing wrong with her.lol

 

Insurance is why I haven't retired. Thanks to obomacare it would cost over $1500 per month for my wife (57), daughter (21) and I (60), and we are all healthy. Before aca my company covered my insurance for the 3 of us and we had a $300 family deductible. Now it's $500 with $1100 per person deductible and 80/20 after that.

 

Self employed here as well. Paying $1800/mo with a $5k deductible for my wife, myself, and 3 kids in college. I shopped the student plans for them and it was $250/mo/kid. So $750/mo. Not worth the hassle to remove them because they contribute to the deductible every year that we meet. We come close to $30k/yr in health related costs. I don't know how people do it.

 

Enjoy it while you can because when you get old they gonna take all your sh$&.

 

I would hate to pay your auto insurance with 3 kids driving. Your health insurance must be the same as I priced, kids don't add that much.

 

Yup. Even working a government job, health insurance is stupid expensive. When the kids were little, we pretty much were paying 7k per year on deductibles before the stop-loss took effect and the insurance would finally kick in. Actually, we usually almost reached the stop loss. So in effect, we just payed premiums for years, for essentially zero insurance coverage. These actuaries know what they’re doing. The health insurance business is nearly a perfect science.

Not that I have much right to complain (yet)…our premiums aren’t nearly as bad as some others have to pay for the same or worse deductibles.

 

So Affordable Care Act made medical care less affordable?

 

Hard to say if it would have been even worse without it though. I’d say it doesn’t seem to be much more affordable on the whole than it was before. It just possibly offers people better deals if they are truly hard up. Although, I’m not sure if it accounts for those that become hard up by having to pay full freight in the gov marketplace lol.

Plus, I remember it turned into a bit of a bait and switch, where the focus became more about guaranteeing “access” to buy health insurance. Not guaranteeing that it would be cheap for everyone. I think that switch came about because there wasn’t political support for goverment to kick in the money for actual medical care. Hence it being a “marketplace” where insurance can sell plans with some goverment restrictions that wouldn’t allow insurance companies to deny coverage, and to organize the whole sliding scale rates. And to give the impression of options so they could say it’s affordable by offering lower premiums with ridiculous deductibles.

I really can’t imagine a way to get costs down with insurance in the mix. Historically, medical care costs started to really truly spiral when insurance became common. But then again, back in the day there wasn’t as much expensive treatment options available.

In practicality, the only way for medical care to get cheaper, is to not get any and accept your fate, or use bankruptcy protection when shit hits the fan.

 

Not if you put all your shit in a trust.

Just went through this with father-in-law's passing.

 

I retired last year and am paying $729 a month for cobra PPO with a 6k deductible. In 2025 that’s going to end and I’m going to have to go private and a comparable plan on the exchange is going to cost me about $1400 a month. I’m 53. Our system is so broken it’s scary.

 

ACA’s a band-aid on a rotten system top to bottom. This is where single-payer/universal like other countries would benefit - frankly I’d love to see it just to unchain folks from big companies and give them more breathing room to strike off on their own.

I know folks like to claim it leads to waiting but my SO is waiting months to see her gyno anyway and someone with money can surely find ways.

But alas.

 

Look on the bright side you are getting to retire at 53, I envy that.. Hopefully some better plans pop up during open enrollment.