Retire Early & Pay a Discounted Rate for Health Insurance

How can you retire early and pay a discounted rate for your health insurance?

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Mike Bernard, CFP® offers advisory services through KFG Wealth Management, LLC dba Korhorn Financial Group. This information is for general financial education and is not intended to provide specific investment advice or recommendations. All investing and investment strategies involve risk including the potential loss of principal. Asset allocation & diversification do not ensure a profit or prevent a loss in a declining market. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results.

[AnnieWinter]

I retired at 60, now 65. Single. Kept my income around 17k to avoid Medicaid and got Obamacare for around $100 a month for 5 years. And received back at the end of the year a refund greater than premiums. Ended up making money in the end. My income came from IRA. I had a lot in savings to live on. You can be a millionaire and pull this off with simple planning

[andrewulrich]

The first year of early retirement we did Cobra. My wife had a significant health scare with major surgery. We found that coverage while expensive, never batted an eye at paying claims. Fast forward two years and we are on an ACA plan and I am going through diagnostic testing needs which will in the end require bypass surgery. It was a high deductible plan but just getting them to agree to the need for testing was a nightmare. Over and over for months fighting to get tests. Their blanket determination was "no medical need". After a couple incidents and my primary docs appealing the denials, they agree and testing says you are teetering on a massive heart attack. Yes its fairly cheap, however that comes at a significant level of difficulties getting them to acknowledge a need for anything other than preventative care. $1600 for cobra, $511 for ACA. I damn near died because they control costs with boilerplate denials. Just be aware. It's rationed healthcare. Biding time until we are on medicare.

[paulcoonce]

Just an FYI; please get to the point much sooner without the drama. We all understand the circumstances. Thank you though

[davidfolts]

Listen to their long-form podcast, with many golden nuggets of financial wisdom.

[jaindeau]

Yes, ACA plans can cost next to nothing, but at least in Maryland, they are also worth next to nothing. Even assuming a full subsidy, there is not a single plan that isn’t an HMO for less than $508/month after the subsidy. And plans have deductibles (not out of pockets — deductibles!) of $5, 000-$8, 000. Only my primary care physician participates in any of the HMO plans. The ENT, dermatologist and ophthalmologist do not. I retired at 62.5 and took COBRA. For the 10 months I’ll be forced to take an ACA policy, I plan to spend part of the time abroad, and will forgo any non-emergency services. Basically, the Maryland ACA plans are only catastrophic coverage.

[CA]

I’ve looked into this exactly. Only with me planning on taking only about 20k a year and a kid still at home we would qualify for Medicaid. Totally free.

[kennonhaneline]

I too am finding no ACA plans cover anything if you are out of the purchase state. You cannot travel safely. Even an emergency room visit will generate non covered expenses outside the plan.

[michaelcoglianese]

As long as you can keep income level low. If not ACA plans will cost a bunch

[sherryBLUE]

My husband is retiring at 62 at the end of this year. The corporation he worked for as a route delivery driver offered continued healthcare for $1000 a month. OMG! No thanks. We did find a healthcare plan with a high deductible for $425 a month.

[jo-annmacneill]

If you leave your job you lose your life insurance also, cobra is too expensive for anybody to afford. You really need to stay at your job as long as you can when you’re single and have nobody else to depend on you can collect your pension but you don’t have that much in there it’s not like it’s millions of dollars it’s just enough, it’s just really difficult

[hainguyen]

Thank for a great video and information.
I am still working past 65 and currently 68 1:/2 . I was not enroll on Medicare part A and delay along Medicare part B until I retire at 70 without penalty because I have an HSA account. My wife now is 61 and has been covered health insurance my health insurance policy at work!
I will retire at the end of 2025 ( 70) how can she have health insurance coverage: Cobra is very expensive while I am on Medicare?
Knowing that my incone at retirement is about of 60 without taking 401K and pension !
Do you have any ideas ?
My wife was unable to return to work due having an auto accident in 2021 ( not her fault) she didn’t want to apply SSDI at that time due to my income is too high.
Thank you in advance for your kind feedback.

Joseoh

[fordmodela]

Was there a significant reason you mention keeping income under 65k?
Thanks for these great videos!

[taxbanker]

Was this seriously a 12-minute video on "retire early and pay a discounted rate on health insurance"-- a long complex informercial saying that there is something called Obamacare (ACA) for people younger than 65. Uh ok. Thanks.

[BlueLineGroovy]

The marriage segment lost me completely.

[KatieLibby]

People need to understand that Republicans have said they want to eliminate the Affordable Care Act and they have shared nothing about what/if they would replace it.

[birdkitty]

Thank you for this video! I put my information on the Healthcare.gov site, even though my yearly income is well above the 100% poverty line they directed me to the Medicaid/Chip portal. So, after many times trying, I finally put my information on the Medicaid site and they redirected me back to the Marketplace portal who in turn sent me back to the Medicaid site. This went on for quite a few times. Does anyone know why? Is there a glitch somewhere in the system? I'm not interested in Medicaid, just curious to see what would happen after putting in basic info to see if I qualify, which I knew I wouldn't. Thank you for any help!