Health Insurance as I move to Part-Time, then FI

[NWOutlier]

Hi Everyone,

I'm wanting to start researching health insurance for myself and family as I move away from working full time.  This would be an expense that I know nothing about, yet I do need to budget for it.  How do I start this research? Anyone know of a good blog post on this? Forum Post?

I'm sure I could write 1000 questions, but I'll leave it like this for now just to get started.. I'm going to put the same effort into this as I do for my whole FI plan...

BTW: things are going great, savings rate is continuously high - got lucky and picked up more VTSAX during this markey wonky-ness...

Looking forward to you input.

Steve (NWOutlier)

[BeanCounter]

Hi Steve,
 I think you are smart to devote a lot of time in looking into the cost of insurance (and I should add deductibles for any needed care each year) for your FI plan. This is something I plan to do as well.
 I work in this industry, but I do not know a lot about your state so I can only probably offer a few suggestions. I would go online to Healthcare.gov and put in some numbers for your area based on what you think your income would be post FIRE, that should give you what you can purchase under the ACA.
I would also consider speaking with a broker who could help you look at private plans as well as ACA plans. Thanks to the ACA, purchasing insurance without an employer has become much easier. Affordability of those plans is another matter.
Best of luck!

[DaveR]

I'd start with wahealthplanfinder.org. You can plug in your family info and get an idea of costs. The info is geared toward the low-income segment, so if your part-time work doesn't qualify you at least you'll get some ideas of who in your area provides coverage.

Once you get into various plans and options, there are several terms to understand: deductibles, copays, coinsurance, etc. I don't have a good resource handy for that (hopefully someone else does). Your best value should be a high-deductible plan with HSA.

Of course, your individual family situation (existing conditions/meds, children on your plan, etc) will potentially change things. So look at today and also how it might be different post-FI.

[Tom Bri]

I went to ehealthinsurance.com to review plans (my employer's plans are listed there). When I found one that looked like what I needed, I didn't buy through ehealth, I went straight to that insurance company's website and submitted the application. Save a bit on commissions that way.

I work in health insurance. One suggestion, read the EXCLUSIONS section carefully. That will tell you what the insurance will not, under any circumstances pay for. There are still a lot of non-ACA plans out there that do not cover pre-existing conditions, for example. 2 pages of fine print, but vital info.

[NWOutlier]

Perfect, thank you all - this will get me started so I can begin to ask more informed questions!  :)

"Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day."  <save, save, save again, save, save agein>


Steve