3 Healthcare Options For Retirees Prior to Medicare | Which is Best?!

We saved cash in the bank (after tax) to supplement our taxable income until Medicare kicks in. So that I can qualify for the ACA. The healthcare situation is so messed up in this country.

4:45 Re: ACA income - Traditional IRA withdrawals count BUT ROTH IRA withdrawals do NOT count. This is a massive key point.

Nice to have some options and it is really very reasonable. Shame we are not yet a developed country though, with free healthcare for all. Thanks Eric.

Always worth watching, Cheers, Jef

Excellent! We limited our retirement withdrawals in order to qualify for Obamacare or ACA and that saved us over $25,000 per year in heath insurance premiums. In Alaska the income threshold to qualify was $89,000 for a couple.

You did not mention short-term medical plans. These may be a viable option for bridging 2-3 years before Medicare. Also, Health Sharing plans can be very risky as they are not true insurance but are a promise to reimburse IF the medical care expense was deemed as qualified.

This is exactly why I converted a large chunk of my 401K to a Roth this year, I am retiring next year at 54 years old and I want to be able to draw of the Roth for "unreported" income to keep the subsidy up.

I made a table of ACA costs vs income where I live. The premium varies in a linear fashion, but the deductible and out of pocket max change in a step wise fashion. A lot can be saved by not going over a cliff if you know your likely medical expenses for the year.

If your income is less than 25k per year. medi-cal charges zero. You can even do a large IRA to ROTH conversion since it’s considered a One time event. Medi-cal verifies your income monthly compared to ACA yearly verification

The issue I found with “medishare” plans is few Dr’s or Hospitals take them! When I retired, none of the doctors that were under my company healthcare plan with would take medishare nor any Obama care plans.

Thank you. I enjoy following you guys. Changing how we need to travel is our plan. We take care of my 85 year old mom snd while she is very mobile and self sufficient. There are times she needs us. So our first year of retirement plannis to take 6 months of travel in 2 month chunks. I am just starting to look at bookings and i find yiu cannot book more than 28 days at a time air bnb. I know you guys dont use that service, do you have another reccomended option?

This falls into the category of every situation is unique. My family was on COBRA on and off with spouse's changing jobs situation. Expensive but at least we couldn't be denied and we got the employer's group rate and the same plan. Then when COBRA ran out (this is pre-ACA) I was able to convert to an individual plan with the same insurance company. When spouse reached Medicare age, I went on to ACA and was shocked at the premium prices and the high deductibles. No way could income be manipulated for subsidy since spouse was still earning income from a full time job. So I stuck with ACA bronze plans for 3 years (at least opened up an HSA for 2 of them when I chose the lowest of the low plans) until I qualified for Medicare.

Leave it to the government to complicate things so much.

Doesn't ACA have a one year look-back for income?

So when we retire nxt year at 63.. we will get aca and have no taxable income because we have Roth Ira ask tax free..would we even qualify fur aca or get medicaid?

Ok. I watched this video several times and still dont understand subsidy slope ans subsidy cliff. What i get is i should not have 54k income for single to get subsidy. Am i right?

Do the math on the "metal" plans. Your out of pocket may be less with bronze than your premiums with platinum.

Very informative. Does your net worth (assuming it's fairly high in mostly retirement savings) affect your monthly premium if the income is below the poverty level?

Ah!!! I see!!! Yeah, that makes sense... ;-)

Where I live, you have to have a low income in order to get a subsidy on a largely useless, super-high deductible ($15,000) bronze plan. They could not have made it worse.