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Retiring at 62, Insurance ?
- Thread starter BDD
- Start date
Private insurance and you will be shocked at the cost.
You might look into Medishare.
You might look into Medishare.
Hillbilly stalker
Senior Member
Be sure you shop around. My life insurance went up last week from $42 monthly to $400 monthly. I’m not paying that. I’m shopping around myself.
greg_n_clayton
Senior Member
My wife got her government insurance through Cigna. So far so good !
RedHills
Self Banned after losing a Noles bet.
Insurance is a big prohibitive for many wanting to retire "early". I did it at 57. It's taken 5 years to reduce my "yearly salary" to a workable figure. That's just for 2 of us. Funny how it works...I try to make as little as I can now. 
Dutch
AMERICAN WARRIOR
I will be using the VA.
LTZ25
Senior Member
Insurance is the reason most non government workers can't retire until they reach SS age . I know a guy who just had a stroke with no insurance , not a situation to be in .
tr21
Senior Member
I retired at 55 and insurance cost me $760 a month for just me ! my COBRA ends in January and I'll be shopping because it will stay the same if I go under the company retiree plan with higher deductible.
GeorgiaBob
Senior Member
I retired at 55 and my wife and I decided to NOT spend the money for regular health insurance. We did get a policy that only covered catastrophic medical expenses for about $300.00 a year. It would have paid nothing until we paid out over $20K on a single health issue - which never happened. So essentially we "self insured."
I was careful to negotiate doctor bills and fees in advance when possible. When we incurred unexpected medical expenses I was in contact with the provider immediately after (usually before any bill was generated). I don't think I ever paid over 40% of the billed amount after negotiations and every provider (except 1 hospital) was quite happy to accept my significantly smaller payment as "payment if full" especially since I paid months faster than the insurance companies.
The one hospital originally insisted that I file a claim as destitute and I had to finally talk to a hospital board member to convince them that I wanted to PAY a fair amount, I was not broke, and was not a charity case. They later admitted my offer of 35% of the billed amount was more than any of the insurance schedules provided.
Over the 10 year "uninsured" period, my wife and I had several hospitalizations, multiple doctor visits every year, a long list of drugs prescribed, physical therapy 3 times, and a couple of surgeries. After negotiated adjustments to the bills, our total outlay was a little under $50,000.00 or an average of about $5,000.00 a year. That worked out to less than a third what the insurance premiums would have been. And that doesn't even allow for the co-pays and deductibles.
If you can find an insurance company to inexpensively cover you for major medical expenses I suggest you consider doing the same.
I was careful to negotiate doctor bills and fees in advance when possible. When we incurred unexpected medical expenses I was in contact with the provider immediately after (usually before any bill was generated). I don't think I ever paid over 40% of the billed amount after negotiations and every provider (except 1 hospital) was quite happy to accept my significantly smaller payment as "payment if full" especially since I paid months faster than the insurance companies.
The one hospital originally insisted that I file a claim as destitute and I had to finally talk to a hospital board member to convince them that I wanted to PAY a fair amount, I was not broke, and was not a charity case. They later admitted my offer of 35% of the billed amount was more than any of the insurance schedules provided.
Over the 10 year "uninsured" period, my wife and I had several hospitalizations, multiple doctor visits every year, a long list of drugs prescribed, physical therapy 3 times, and a couple of surgeries. After negotiated adjustments to the bills, our total outlay was a little under $50,000.00 or an average of about $5,000.00 a year. That worked out to less than a third what the insurance premiums would have been. And that doesn't even allow for the co-pays and deductibles.
If you can find an insurance company to inexpensively cover you for major medical expenses I suggest you consider doing the same.
transfixer
Senior Member
Not retired yet, plan on two more years and I'll retire at 64, but I haven't had insurance for the last 6 yrs, Obama care ruined my BCBS policy I had for almost 20yrs, I tried one of the health.gov plans for a year or so, it was a ripoff, my prescriptions were cheaper if I paid cash myself instead of using my insurance, I dropped it, I pay cash for my 6 month checkups, cash for prescriptions, if I were married and had kids it would be different I suppose, but insurance is nothing but legalized theft , and your out of pocket with most insurance plans will be more than if you just simply paid cash for whatever service you're getting
transfixer
Senior Member
"They later admitted my offer of 35% of the billed amount was more than any of the insurance schedules provided"
that is what chaps my hind end about insurance companies, we are supposed to pay them these ridiculous premiums, so they will cover our bills when a situation arises, but then they don't pay what the hospital wants to charge, the force the hospital to accept a reduced amount ! and make the hospital or doctor's office wait 60 to 120 days to even get paid ! so we're paying them the premiums they ask for , and they're supposed to pay our bills for receiving those premiums, then they refuse to pay the bill, until they beat it down to what "they " want to pay
that is what chaps my hind end about insurance companies, we are supposed to pay them these ridiculous premiums, so they will cover our bills when a situation arises, but then they don't pay what the hospital wants to charge, the force the hospital to accept a reduced amount ! and make the hospital or doctor's office wait 60 to 120 days to even get paid ! so we're paying them the premiums they ask for , and they're supposed to pay our bills for receiving those premiums, then they refuse to pay the bill, until they beat it down to what "they " want to pay
For good family coverage expect a premium in the $2K/month area.
Unfortunately unless you have a early retirement package insurance is keeping more people working. Even if your go out on disability you have to pay for a private plan for a year before you are eligible for Medicare. Unless you can self insure it is real difficult but not impossible to get insurance
GeorgiaBob
Senior Member
It's a shell game that bothers me too. But the real enemy isn't the insurance company (they are just very willing accomplices). The cause of the inflated medical costs and the idiot games with prices is the federal government. The federal law that created Medicare, and later the welfare leach Medicaid, is the real instrument of the destruction of medical competency in the USA.
Medicare forced providers to establish higher initial costs so that they didn't go out of business when Medicare only paid them a tiny portion of their bill and forced the provider to accept that tiny payment as total compensation. Insurance companies quickly stepped in and negotiated contracts with providers that also paid only a portion of the bill and forced providers to pretend that was the full amount that patients were not required to pay. When that game was well established the feds changed the rules and Congress came up with an arcane schedule of "procedures" and specific dollar payments for each of the many thousands of four digit coded things.
It might surprise you to know that the Medicare "copay" is often MORE than Medicare pays on a particular bill. That usually is not true about insurance companies. But it is still ugly. A typical example is a regular doctor visit with insurance = example = they ask for a $25 copay and you see a bill for $175. You think that the insurance company will pay $150. Not gonna' happen. The insurance company has a contract with the medical or hospital group your doctor is a part of so the negotiated amount the insurance pays is $40 (maybe even less).
The doctor made $65 for spending 10 minutes with you. Or maybe not. That payment amount is discounted by the insurance company for any coding errors and the payment doesn't show up for months. To make sure there are fewer coding errors your doctor has to employ a full time insurance specialist who is often more expensive than the RN!
Even then, the GP doctor you last saw is not getting rich, not after paying for all the government mandated goodies he has to have that cost him 15 times what the exact same thing costs for "non-medical" use. Then there is the malpractice insurance, that expensive billing clerk, the RN, a receptionist, health insurance on all employees, the accountant that charges him monthly to keep up with the tax changes, the lawyer he has to have to deal with Medicare, the insurance companies and the IRS, and . . .
SO the insurance company def is not among the good guys, but they are still just following the leader Medicare. Best guess by medical and actuarial pros, if Medicare/Medicaid and all the federal provider payment rules were eliminated and people had to deal directly with providers - the total cost of medical care in this country would settle out at about 12% of current billings. There would likely still be a place for a much smaller medical insurance industry - covering major medical expenses. Without the rules and medical cost inflation seniors on SSI would probably spend less paying out of pocket than Medicare parts A and B now take out of their check!
Don't expect Medicare to go away. More than 500,000 government employees depend on Medicare to keep them employed doing paperwork and punching keyboards. Then there are the many millions of billing clerks and other provider employees (entire 20 to 400 employee departments in hospitals) who would lose their jobs without Medicare paperwork. And the Insurance companies need the cover Medicare provides to keep growing their business, adding employees, and feeding bigger dividends to Vanguard, BlackRock, and State Street.
transfixer
Senior Member
I just left a mega healthcare system as my provider, and chose a small independent family medicine office, which has cash pay office visits of $100, a bargain compared to my cash pay price of $217 at the mega system provider, and I can have my labs done at one of the independent places for about 1/5th of the price I was paying at the mega healthcare place,
I doubt I'll ever use medicare, if I make it to the age to be able to, our healthcare system is broken, irretrievably broken ! if I knew I had to have a major surgery I'd probably go to another country,, although at 62yrs old I'm not going to have any other major surgeries, something happens that requires that ? I'll just go ahead an check out , never wanted to die in a hospital bed anyway, and if I have anything to say about it I won't !
I doubt I'll ever use medicare, if I make it to the age to be able to, our healthcare system is broken, irretrievably broken ! if I knew I had to have a major surgery I'd probably go to another country,, although at 62yrs old I'm not going to have any other major surgeries, something happens that requires that ? I'll just go ahead an check out , never wanted to die in a hospital bed anyway, and if I have anything to say about it I won't !
cowhornedspike
Senior Member
Once you reach medicare age that $100 cash doctor will not be able to treat you legally anymore...
GeorgiaBob
Senior Member
If you don't sign up for Medicare, or simply don't tell the doctor about your Medicare, there is no law preventing the doc from providing medical services in exchange for cash.
cowhornedspike
Senior Member
Our local "cash only" doc asks if you are over 65 and says he isn't allowed to take money from you if you are eligible for medicare. Says it is a gov rule...I don't know myself, just repeating what he says.
Not signing up for Medicare when you become eligible is more expensive than signing up for it.
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