31–40 of 64 posts
Do you have a section on your website for families? I couldn't find it.
If you send me your email (mine is in my profile), I'd be happy to notify you when it launches.
COBRA is not necessarily more expensive than individual insurance, if you're older. COBRA charges the same premium as the group insurance you had with your employer, perhaps with a small surcharge tacked on. It's more out of your pocket simply because your employer isn't pitching in anymore. If you're young and healthy, COBRA may cost more, since it's a rate for a group that probably includes older and sicker people.…
COBRA coverage ends after 18 months, which makes it risky even when it's cheaper -- if you come down with a chronic illness (cancer, diabetes) in the meantime it will be much harder to find follow on coverage because now you have a precondition. Or at least that's my understanding from my CPA who was trying to talk me out of using COBRA coverage. That conversation was before AHCA ("Obamacare") passed. If the ban on p…
More info: http://www.insurance.ca.gov/0100-consumers/0070-health-issue...
As an independent software developer with Type 1 Diabetes, COBRA from my previous employer is my only option. Fortunately, California extends the national 18 month maximum duration to 36 months. Unfortunately, my COBRA will run out 4 months before 2014, so I'll need to figure something out before then.
added info: flexible spending arrangements (health FSAs) are capped at $2,500 for 2013. This is a rather large drop and might require you to do some additional budgeting this year.
Are HSA's the kind of thing you need to opt-into during the enrollment window, or you've missed the opportunity till next year? Never used one before, but it might make sense this year.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's nice to not have to worry about these things though. It would be pretty awesome to one day see the US have a public health care.
The U.S. has public education, and people still worry an awful lot about whether their kids' schools are any good, to the point of some spending a premium of literally hundreds of thousands of dollars on housing in the "right" districts, or on private education. The poor are still underserved, racially-measured outcome disparities are substantial, etc. None of this is directly an argument against public health care,…
The same isn't true for healthcare. This bizarre system of tying your healthcare to your job means even middle and high income families don't have any peace of mind when it comes to healthcare. Heck, my wife and I are a high income couple and have expensive health insurance, and we are still completely paranoid about all the ways the insurers could find to screw us over, especially now that we're about to have a baby. Every time my wife goes to a pre-natal visit, she ends up fighting with the insurer about how something was coded, etc.
Like an FSA, pre-tax money goes into an HSA, and you can withdraw from it tax-free for qualifying medical expenses. You can also make taxable withdrawals with no penalty for non-medical purposes after age 65.
Unlike an FSA, an HSA is a real savings account and not a use-it-or-lose-it account. You own the money in it; it doesn't vanish at the end of the year.
You don't have to get an HSA from the same provider as your medical plan. You simply need to get an HSA-compatible medical plan like the ones mentioned in the article, and then you can open an HSA anywhere they are offered.
Once you have that plan, you can open the HSA any time you want. There is no "enrollment period" for an HSA when you open it separately from your medical plan.
You don't have to get an HSA that is "managed" in the way that most FSAs are. Instead, you can get an HSA that works like a checking account: You have your own checkbook and an ATM card that works at medical providers. Rather than submitting claim forms and getting reimbursed, you simply write checks or use the ATM card to pay your medical bills. Or if you use other funds (checking, credit card, whatever) to pay a medical bill, you can write a check to yourself from your HSA to reimburse yourself.
With this type of HSA, you don't have to decide ahead of time how much you will be putting into it. You get deposit slips or a way to make online deposits, and it's up to you to decide how much and how often to contribute, subject to the maximum contribution limits.
If you're maxing out your other retirement account options, you can contribute to your HSA but pay your medical expenses out-of-pocket, so your HSA balance grows like another IRA.
This kind of HSA is also portable: if you change insurance companies or plans, you can keep the same HSA instead of having to transfer it to your new provider. As long as your new medical plan is still HSA-compatible, you can keep contributing to the HSA.
If you change to a medical plan that is no longer HSA-compatible, you can keep your HSA and continue to use it for medical expenses, or let the money sit in it as long as you want. You just can't make additional contributions to the HSA.
I use HSA Bank for my HSA: http://www.hsabank.com/ At the time I opened my HSA many years ago, they were one of the few options for the type of self-managed HSA I wanted. I looked at other banks as well, but they were offering traditional managed HSAs where I'd have to deal with reimbursement forms. I would hope there are a number of other options for self-managed HSAs these days, but at least this is one place to look at. (I have no affiliation with them other than as long-time customer.)
I recently talked with the COO of a mid-size software company who was looking into HSAs and their payroll/insurance provider was pushing combined plans that included the medical and HSA into one managed plan. When I recommended he look into these self-managed HSAs and described them to him, he asked, "Is that legal?" I assured them that it is and that I've had one for many years. :-)
This post gives terrible advice for those in the Ongoing Medical Conditions category. For most pre-existing conditions there's very little chance of getting approved for any of the plans they recommend. A bit surprising coming from a company that should apparently know what they're talking about. As an independent software developer with Type 1 Diabetes, COBRA from my previous employer is my only option. Fortunately,…
For example, when you apply for a Blue Shield individual plan, you have three options:
1) Answer all the medical questions and apply for underwritten coverage.
2) Skip all the medical questions and apply for a guaranteed issue plan only (if you meet the 18 month and COBRA requirements).
3) Apply for both simultaneously: answer the medical questions and hope to get underwritten coverage, but also request automatic guaranteed issue if they decline the underwritten plan. This is the option I'd recommend of course. (Even with a pre-existing condition, it's possible that they may still offer an underwritten plan in a higher rate tier, which would still be less than the guaranteed issue plan.)
More information from the California Department of Managed Health Care:
These premiums actually look pretty good. I was under the impression that non-employer based plans were much more expensive... Is there a catch? Do they have to cover pre-existing conditions in CA already? Are there coverage caps? Thanks for putting together the article, very helpful!
Starting in 2014 - it will be illegal to have lifetime caps on health insurance. Also limits on "essential services" will be illegal. They are loosely defined as: - Emergency services - Prescription drugs - Mental and behavioral health, and substance abuse treatment - Preventive, wellness, and chronic disease management - Pediatric services - Maternity and newborn care Excluding based on pre-existing conditions will…
COBRA is not necessarily more expensive than individual insurance, if you're older. COBRA charges the same premium as the group insurance you had with your employer, perhaps with a small surcharge tacked on. It's more out of your pocket simply because your employer isn't pitching in anymore. If you're young and healthy, COBRA may cost more, since it's a rate for a group that probably includes older and sicker people.…
COBRA coverage ends after 18 months, which makes it risky even when it's cheaper -- if you come down with a chronic illness (cancer, diabetes) in the meantime it will be much harder to find follow on coverage because now you have a precondition. Or at least that's my understanding from my CPA who was trying to talk me out of using COBRA coverage. That conversation was before AHCA ("Obamacare") passed. If the ban on p…
I posted a couple of ca.gov links elsewhere in the comments with more information.