Ever since my mid-twenties, I have been covered by medical insurance through my employer. Sometimes the plan has been great, sometimes not-so-great, but I always just took what I was given. Now I am thinking about retiring before I would be covered by Medicare, which means that I would have to get my own health insurance, and I know nothing about what to think about and how to go about it.
Right now my coverage is great, and I would like to continue it. I know that CORBA is a thing, but I don’t know if it is appropriate or if it is strictly a transitional thing.
How do I shop for health insurance? What should I worry about? Who has insurance they like?
COBRA is transitional, probably limited to 18 months unless there are other circumstances you haven’t mentioned, and may be expensive - you stay on your employer’s group plan, but you have to pay the entire cost.
The ACA marketplace is healthcare.gov
That will show you all the ACA plans in your state, and will allow you to figure out if you’re eligible for subsidy. Early retirement and loss of coverage through your employer would be a qualifying event that would allow you to enrol mid-year.
With COBRA, you’ll be paying the actual price for your policy, not the discounted price you’re currently getting with your employer footing most of it. Your employer can tell you what that rate will be. You can stay on COBRA for 18 months (I think) after leaving your job, but you probably won’t want to if you can get something less expensive through the link Riemann gave you.
In my state, there are numerous insurance brokers who are approved by the healthcare.gov site to be proficient in plans. If your state has them too, you might be able to get better information from one of them. They should be listed at the website. You can still sign up for the state plans on your own without going through them once you get the info you need. A friend of mine with extreme health issues got much more useful info from the broker than through the state…
To be clear: the brokers are going to be selling the same policies that Healthcare.gov offers in your state, but a good broker can be very helpful as you navigate the options (different providers, different “metal levels” (i.e., plan levels), etc.), and can help you get the knowledge needed to select the best plan for you.
One gotcha is there are (or at least can be) significant bad repercussions for having a gap in coverage; even one as short as 30 days. Even if nothing bad happens to your health during those particular 30 days.
So be very sure you’ve got your replacement coverage fully locked in before you cut loose from your employer coverage. There are tactics to use COBRA coverage to retroactively paper over a gap if one arises due to a last minute glitch. But that assumes you’re still within the COBRA window.
There are a lot of temporary provisions in the various laws due to COVID. Said another way, any article you Google up that isn’t dated this year may be telling the truth as it was, not as it is.
All of these temporary provisions will sunset or be changed again before too much longer. Right now planning medical coverage even 6 months into the future is harder than it historically has been.
The Republicans are still hell-bent on gutting the ACA. Choosing to go for private insurance amounts to assuming the risk that ACA and all the associated plans and rules and prices will be changed beyond your tolerance before you’re old enough for Medicare.
Which is itself another R target for the chopping block, albeit not with the same ferocity.
Good point! In my state (and I don’t know if it’s true for every state), if you don’t get new coverage within 60 days, then you can’t get any coverage until the next enrollment period (for the following year). However, the allowable gap length has increased temporarily with Covid-19, and I don’t know what it currently is.
In fact, it’s a federal rule. When you have a “qualifying life event” (such as leaving a job, and no longer being covered under your old employer’s health coverage), you get a “special enrollment period,” during which you can buy an individual policy, which is something like 60 days. Outside of a special enrollment period, if you’re under 65, you can only buy an individual policy during Open Enrollment, which runs from November 1 through December 15, for policies which cover the next calendar year.
I’m not worried about the Republicans fucking up Medicare. It’s the only part of the U.S. healthcare system that not completely dysfunctional, and they’d be out of power for the next 50 years if they messed with it. Old people vote.
@Riemann: In general I agree. But they’re also itching to gut SS which has the same elder constituency. This payroll tax holiday gimmick shows that they’re not afraid to play with that fire as long as they disguise the labeling enough.
You know that if the “Terrific Reform Unamerican Medical Programs” Act of 2021 passes it’ll mortally wound Medicare while claiming they’re striking a blow against EVIIIL socialism and for FREEDOM!!!11!1!
All they need to do, as they did with ACA from birth, is hole it below the waterline and wait.