Health Insurance for Americans that are NOT Retired

[biker6977]

We are wanting to start cruising in 3-5 years- we will be around 55 at the time- we will not have insurance through our jobs and will not be eligible for Medicaid yet. Will we be required to get health insurance with Obama care? Is it possible to get low cost- under $500 a month- health insurance only for catastrophic illnesses- such as needing emergency surgery? This may have been answered but I can't find specifics to this time frame and age.

[chuckr]

We are over 65 and could care less about Obama care. We do have medicare but once outside the USA it is worthless. We get good medical in foreign countries that is very good and very inexpensive. We pay out of pocket. I had 3/4 of one side of my nose replaced due to to much sun and it was less than 2k.

If you do a search on heath insurance there is a lot of threads out there on this forum about it.

[Island Time O25]

My understanding from talking to many cruisers/circumnavigators that in most countries, even well developed ones self pay is way cheaper than in US, even cheaper than US based medical insurance. I have personal experience (although a bit stale by now) from late 90s- early 2000s, actually on three different occasions, one of which was my own and the other 2 my buddies', of walking into a well appointed hospital in Venezuela and getting emergency care for peanuts - between $20 and $40 for something which would have cost us at least 100s of $ if not more back home. Same for prescription drugs. We picked up our medicine for about $1-2 per bottle, less than a co-pay would have been in US.

[SV THIRD DAY]

Originally Posted by biker6977

We are wanting to start cruising in 3-5 years- we will be around 55 at the time- we will not have insurance through our jobs and will not be eligible for Medicaid yet. Will we be required to get health insurance with Obama care? Is it possible to get low cost- under $500 a month- health insurance only for catastrophic illnesses- such as needing emergency surgery? This may have been answered but I can't find specifics to this time frame and age.

If you can document that you are outside of the USA for 330 Days/year then you are freed from the requirements to buy into Obamacare, so that's good news No 1.

Good news No 2 is that once you are out of the USA Health insurance for cruisers gets damn affordable and there are plenty of companies that offer good Catastrophic plans and then you can pay out of pocket for the small every day things. This is what we did for our time in Mexico. At $385 for a colonoscopy, $60 for a skin cancer burn off, and $60 for my wife's yearly OBGYN check-ups and mammograms...who need anything more than a good Catastrophic plan anyway!?!

[Boatguy30]

If you have a modest cruising income of say 20-30k a year you will get an excellent subsidy.

I love the guy that's 65 and doesn't care about us trying to figure this out. I'm 37 and would vote for any candidate that would either FULLY privatize all healthcare OR fully socialize it all. We can't keep having it both ways and sticking what's left of the middle class with the bills for everyone else's care.

[Boatguy30]

Btw, are you sure in the 330 day thing. I plan to be out of the US on 2016-2018 but my ACA policy is honestly dirt cheap so will likely keep if. I honestly should/ could pay more, but I'm just paying what they tell me to.

Again, the day they give a one time lump payment to all the over 65ers who don't care about healthcare for the workers, I'll be happy to pay into a TRUE market based system. As long as the government is completely distorting the marketplace and probably provided 4 out of 5 jobs in my state directly and indirectly.

I'll just go with the flow and keep my ACA policy.

[SV THIRD DAY]

If Obamacare is Good or Bad, Moral or Amoral, a Scam or Salvation isn't the issue. The issue is should you plan your cruising dream around a subsidy that odds are will be going away? It doesn't look like the Illegal Subsidy will last much longer in the States that didn't set up a State Exchange. So a strategy would be to move your State of Residency to a State that set up a State exchange if you want to keep your Government Cheese. The Court Rulings are piling up and it's heading to the US Supreme Court which is expected to strike down the Illegal Subsidy.

Originally Posted by Boatguy30

Btw, are you sure in the 330 day thing

Yep...but you can go ahead and pay for Obamacare if you are out of the USA more than 330days/yr...you just don't legally have to, you are "freed" from the Mandate/Tax.

[Boatguy30]

I'm not so sure it's "expected" or "illegal". But hey, there's lots of state with good cheese.

[Orion Jim]

I'm 58 and retired with no healthcare. I can't afford a policy through my state's "Exchange". I'm just rolling the dice until I have some coverage with Medicaid or Medicare. Anyone know of some reasonably cheap major medical policy sellers? I'll pay all the rest out of pocket.

[Boatguy30]

While I'm no big supporter of any part of the US healthcare system, I would argue that you can't "afford" to be retired if you don't have healthcare. And I can't afford to waste my time working to pay for your future Medicare you're crossing your fingers to skate into.

[jcapo]

Originally Posted by Jim Walsh

I'm 58 and retired with no healthcare. I can't afford a policy through my state's "Exchange". I'm just rolling the dice until I have some coverage with Medicaid or Medicare. Anyone know of some reasonably cheap major medical policy sellers? I'll pay all the rest out of pocket.

No such thing as "cheap" any longer since ALL health insurance policies must be ACA compliant. My wife's premium goes from $278/month to $557/month in a month or so. The same policy would be $0 cost after a "subsidy" ie: somebody else pays for it, if we lived in Savannah.

The good side of the ACA compliant policy is that it includes children's dental care. We have no kids and I've been fixed.

Catastrophic coverage only is available under some very limited circumstances.

The whole things a mess.

[Paul L]

3 to 5 years out is probably too far to plan for health insurance, unless you have some way to get it through an employer as a part timer, etc. The ACA policy we have has dropped our monthly premiums from about $650/month to $110/month. The $650 policy was catastrophic only. Be wary of the out-of-US catastrophic policies, as most of them have an onerous pre-exisiting conditions clause that covers much more than any reasonable person would consider pre-exisiting condition and has extremely low limits for any of these.
We have health insurance to protect our assets. For normal medical we pay out of pocket in the countries we travel to. For something major such as a long term serious illness we would use the insurance.

[gonesail]

Originally Posted by biker6977

Is it possible to get low cost- under $500 a month- health insurance only for catastrophic illnesses- such as needing emergency surgery?

yes if your income is under 20K per year and you take the subsidies from the government. otherwise 500 a month is about right for an almost unaffordable and useless health care plan courtesy of the politicians still in charge of what is left of this country

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by gonesail

yes if your income is under 20K per year and you take the subsidies from the government. otherwise 500 a month is about right for an almost unaffordable and useless health care plan courtesy of the politicians still in charge of what is left of this country

If your income is under $20k then in most states you would qualify for Medicaid, not an ACA policy.

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by biker6977

We are wanting to start cruising in 3-5 years- we will be around 55 at the time- we will not have insurance through our jobs and will not be eligible for Medicaid yet. Will we be required to get health insurance with Obama care? Is it possible to get low cost- under $500 a month- health insurance only for catastrophic illnesses- such as needing emergency surgery? This may have been answered but I can't find specifics to this time frame and age.

If you stay in the US you will need to get a plan. If so you can go to your State's ACA website and it probably has a calculator where you can find out the price for you since all that matters is your age and income.