My health coverage is going up 5% again. That means I will pay $12,750.00 starting Jan 1st for my family plan before insurance will start paying 80% of a medical bill. What other alternatives are out there? I could put all that money into my own medical rainy day fund or maybe there is a catastrophic insurance option that would cover hospital bills above a certain amount and leave doctors’ offices up to me? Any ideas?
Is your current health insurance from the Government Health Insurance Marketplace (Affordable Care Act insurance)? Is the $12,750 just the premiums? Is it a high-deductible plan?
You certainly don’t want to go without any coverage as a major issue could be hundreds of thousands of dollars out of pocket and make the $12,750 look like peanuts.
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$3,600 deductible, $765 in premiums/month. It’s a plan available through my company. The other plan does not quality for an HSA but costs about the same. They take the deductable down but add the exact same amount to the monthly premiums.
“You certainly don’t want to go without any coverage as a major issue could be hundreds of thousands of dollars out of pocket and make the $12,750 look like peanuts.”
Yeah, I get that. Hence my original question. Is there anything out there that works like homeowners insurance that covers you for catastrophic things, but allows you to pay for your own epairs as they pop up but are there for catastrophic problems? Health coverage seems to be my only option, but I want an actual Insurance plan, not Full Coverage.
There are catastrophic plans available through the Government Exchange (I just Googled it), but they won’t necessarily be available in your state. I just looked up what I could get on the exchange in Washington State and I don’t see any catastrophic-only plans here. So, if I wanted a catastrophic only plan, it doesn’t look like I can get one. So, it seems my only two options for any health insurance is through my employer or through the exchange, which is more expensive.
I would poke around for Affordable Care Act plans in your state. Beyond that, your only option may be to get the highest deductible plan through your employer. Or maybe find a health insurance broker in your area to see what options are available. I’m not an expert, only to the extent that I have to pick a plan every year like most other people and have poked around on the exchange to see what options I have if I retire before Medicare kicks in. Good luck.
Remember “If you like your plan, you can keep your plan?” Yeah, that was always a lie, and what you want is basically illegal. I’m sorry your government sold you out to the highest bidder.
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Like most govt programs, there’s just a new set of winners and losers. In order to satisfy the small set of losers previously, they made the majority of us losers.
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They used to be available, but haven’t been for years. It ought to be an option…no coverage until some large out of pocket is met, then a large % covered.
What would make that different than a high deductible plan?
Basically a super high deductible with, hopefully, lower premiums.
But I suspect the OP will be out of luck.
I dont recall the specifics, but it did not cover any expenses that were less than a very high dollar amount, which would be things like being hospitalized, having surgery, etc. But the out of pocket for those were similar to what they’d be on a normal policy.
What about umbrella insurance? It’s mostly used by businesses to cover for catastrophic expenses. But, I believe it can also be used by individuals.
Best wishes
As a self-employeed individual, I have a ACA (Affordable Care Act) plan which costs over $400/month for single coverage with a high deductible. I looked at private plans through Blue Cross, which are less expensive, however, there are protections built into the ACA plans that aren’t offered by the private plans through Blue Cross. I don’t trust insurance companies, thus don’t trust private plans. You can see the private plans at the Blue Cross website.
My quick history: I retired early in 2016 at 57 without insurance. I got a heath care sharing plan (Google it) for $300 a month for my wife & I. It was okay but I never fully trusted it to pay if we had a serious medical condition. ACA bronze plan premiums were too high (>$1000/mo) at the time because our income was over $62k. When the Biden & the Dems got in they passed a new covid spending bill that raised the ACA income levels and we now have a high deductible ($14k) plan which is basically a catastrophic plan for about $60/mo. I would suggest you apply for an ACA high deductible plan and see what kind of premium you can get.
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