[Wawa92]

Will be retiring on December 31st and be relocating full time to The Villages. My wife and I will need Health Care coverage and was hoping someone would have guidance/recommendation on where we could get coverage based on past or current experiences. Both my wife and I are under the age of 60.

[villagetinker]

I would call Villages Health, but if I understand the current situation, you are on your own to get health coverage (aka Obamacare) until you are 65. If I understand it correctly, VHS will accept your insurance (please call them to confirm), until you are 65, then you MUST convert to one of the accepted MEDICARE ADVANTAGE plans, or leave your Primary care doctor in VHS. You can also call SHINE, here is the link: SHINE - Home they may be able to help you. If you have an employer heath plan, call VHS (Villages Health system) and confirm it is accepted, as I recall they accept most health coverage plans for people under 65.
Hope this helps.

[bagboy]

IF you are going on the open market to buy health insurance, I highly recommend you call Ken Laws, Benco Insurance Agency in Leesburg Fl. He represents Florida Blue, which is your only option for health insurance. They have several plans, benefit ranges, and premium prices. I believe him to be quite knowledgeable, he can answer your questions and guide you in the right direction. Good Luck and Welcome to The Villages! !!!

352-728-0050

[billybye]

Check with ACA policies and hope it is not done away with. Good luck with going on your own for individual policies. We found ACA was only affordable policy available for people over 55, healthy or not.
On Medicare now, but feel sorry for those not 65 yet. If you didn't vote, blame yourself if ACA is gone.

[spring_chicken]

Thank your lucky stars Obamacare is on the way out. My premiums have doubled over the last 2 years. Thank God help is on the way!

[Kahuna32162]

OK, pretty much same boat, moved here at 59 and had to purchase our own health care insurance. Unless you want the absolute bare bones, it's expensive, to the tune of about $1,400/month for 2. We started with Florida Blue, but changed to United Health care for last year (they seem to be the preferred provider in The Villages). as of Jan 1, 2017, UHC will no longer be issuing individual policies in the State of Florida. So, for us, it's back to Florida Blue at about the same rate with a higher deductible than last year.

You can try going through the exchange, while it still lasts, but if you don't qualify for a subsidy, it's really not worth it. BTW, we used Mid Florida Agencies in the Palm Ridge Plaza and Renata Cockburn 352 259-0666. Good Luck!

[Nucky]

Originally Posted by spring_chicken

Thank your lucky stars Obamacare is on the way out. My premiums have doubled over the last 2 years. Thank God help is on the way!

So if the ACA is gone you will pay less? Maybe I'm just doing the math wrong?

[RickeyD]

Originally Posted by Nucky

So if the ACA is gone you will pay less? Maybe I'm just doing the math wrong?

Don't bother Nuckster, it ain't worth it. [emoji53]

[billybye]

Originally Posted by RickeyD

Don't bother Nuckster, it ain't worth it. [emoji53]

So true

[valuemkt]

My wife works in this area and told me some facts about ACA

1. Because you are buying a fully insured individual policy, the ACA requires every person to be covered for the 13 essential health categories they designated under ACA. This includes maternity. So even if you're past child bearing, you're paying for this coverage. There are other coverages you may not want but I'll forego the boring details. Elimination of ACA means you can go back to policies where you didn't purchase coverages you didn't need.

2. ACA provides subsidies for lower income individuals so some pre-65 retirees may be able to get a government subsidy and pay less than the full price. As the prices rise, the government is increasing subsidies. For those folks, they think Obamacare is great because they now have affordable health care. For people who don't get subsidies, the prices have been going up significantly and they get to pay the huge increases.

3. On top of all this, the government requires insurance companies to underwrite people who enroll in the public exchanges (the sickest) and in the individual market as a single risk pool. The government initially agreed to reimburse insurance companies for their losses for taking on the sicker people. The feds have only been paying carriers for about 14 - 16% of their losses and so the carriers are losing their shirts - that's why they are exiting.

4. Health care never really gets cheaper unless you buy less coverages or have higher deductibles and then use less care because you are healthy. That's because the higher the deductible, the lower the premium.

ACA required you to buy more coverages than you may need and then they failed to reimburse insurance companies for millions in losses, so everyone suffered.

On the whole, ACA swizzled monies to different places and didn't improve the overall quality of care. And reductions in Medicare reimbursements to doctors and hospitals only end up having them charge more to the non-Medicare people. Have you ever seen a doctor or hospital take a pay-cut?

[Paper1]

Originally Posted by Wawa92

Will be retiring on December 31st and be relocating full time to The Villages. My wife and I will need Health Care coverage and was hoping someone would have guidance/recommendation on where we could get coverage based on past or current experiences. Both my wife and I are under the age of 60.

Brace yourself. My wife and I are both 64 and have a $1550 monthly premium for 2017 with a big deductable. We have Florida Blue and I don't think you'll find coverage for less. Never thought I'm not looking forward to 65 but my out of pocket costs will drop 75%. If you find something better please post.

[ColdNoMore]

It seems to me that a lot of people have either forgotten how fast health insurance costs were rising before ACA...or were protected by their company picking up the increases.

Blaming ACA is the easy scapegoat, but I'm still waiting for some specifics as to what will take its place...if in fact it actually gets changed.

Obamacare Premiums Are Lower Than You Think

Since the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) health insurance marketplaces first took effect in 2014, news story after story has focused on premium increases for certain plans, in certain cities, or for certain individuals. Based on preliminary reports, premiums now appear set to rise by a substantial amount in 2017.

What these individual data points miss, however, is that average premiums in the individual market actually dropped significantly upon implementation of the ACA, according to our new analysis, even while consumers got better coverage. In other words, people are getting more for less under the ACA.

While certain aspects of ACA are very popular by a majority (no preexisting conditions, older children qualifying, etc.), what a lot of folks seemed to have forgotten is that it's the provision that younger, and therefore more healthy participants, are required to participate...which offsets those bottom line negatives to health insurance providers.

Just a note of caution for the ACA/Obamacare haters...be careful of what you wish for.

[spring_chicken]

Originally Posted by valuemkt

My wife works in this area and told me some facts about ACA

1. Because you are buying a fully insured individual policy, the ACA requires every person to be covered for the 13 essential health categories they designated under ACA. This includes maternity. So even if you're past child bearing, you're paying for this coverage. There are other coverages you may not want but I'll forego the boring details. Elimination of ACA means you can go back to policies where you didn't purchase coverages you didn't need.

2. ACA provides subsidies for lower income individuals so some pre-65 retirees may be able to get a government subsidy and pay less than the full price. As the prices rise, the government is increasing subsidies. For those folks, they think Obamacare is great because they now have affordable health care. For people who don't get subsidies, the prices have been going up significantly and they get to pay the huge increases.

3. On top of all this, the government requires insurance companies to underwrite people who enroll in the public exchanges (the sickest) and in the individual market as a single risk pool. The government initially agreed to reimburse insurance companies for their losses for taking on the sicker people. The feds have only been paying carriers for about 14 - 16% of their losses and so the carriers are losing their shirts - that's why they are exiting.

4. Health care never really gets cheaper unless you buy less coverages or have higher deductibles and then use less care because you are healthy. That's because the higher the deductible, the lower the premium.

ACA required you to buy more coverages than you may need and then they failed to reimburse insurance companies for millions in losses, so everyone suffered.

On the whole, ACA swizzled monies to different places and didn't improve the overall quality of care. And reductions in Medicare reimbursements to doctors and hospitals only end up having them charge more to the non-Medicare people. Have you ever seen a doctor or hospital take a pay-cut?

Good analysis.

[bagboy]

Originally Posted by valuemkt

My wife works in this area and told me some facts about ACA

1. Because you are buying a fully insured individual policy, the ACA requires every person to be covered for the 13 essential health categories they designated under ACA. This includes maternity. So even if you're past child bearing, you're paying for this coverage. There are other coverages you may not want but I'll forego the boring details. Elimination of ACA means you can go back to policies where you didn't purchase coverages you didn't need.

2. ACA provides subsidies for lower income individuals so some pre-65 retirees may be able to get a government subsidy and pay less than the full price. As the prices rise, the government is increasing subsidies. For those folks, they think Obamacare is great because they now have affordable health care. For people who don't get subsidies, the prices have been going up significantly and they get to pay the huge increases.

3. On top of all this, the government requires insurance companies to underwrite people who enroll in the public exchanges (the sickest) and in the individual market as a single risk pool. The government initially agreed to reimburse insurance companies for their losses for taking on the sicker people. The feds have only been paying carriers for about 14 - 16% of their losses and so the carriers are losing their shirts - that's why they are exiting.

4. Health care never really gets cheaper unless you buy less coverages or have higher deductibles and then use less care because you are healthy. That's because the higher the deductible, the lower the premium.

ACA required you to buy more coverages than you may need and then they failed to reimburse insurance companies for millions in losses, so everyone suffered.

On the whole, ACA swizzled monies to different places and didn't improve the overall quality of care. And reductions in Medicare reimbursements to doctors and hospitals only end up having them charge more to the non-Medicare people. Have you ever seen a doctor or hospital take a pay-cut?

The OP has a very real dilemma. They will both need to purchase health insurance. Other than aquiring insurance with Florida Blue, through the ACA Marketplace, what do you or your wife suggest they do?

[villagetinker]

OP, My wife and I are out of this market (aka over 65) but I thought there were other options then the "exchanges". As stated previously, there are some included options that old people do not need, so private insurance with just the coverages you need might be less costly. As I stated before, SHINE may be able to help, that would be followed by a Google search on private insurance options, do you have an option of COBRA coverage, we had that for the 18 months after I retired, and before I hit 65. Finally, as suggested before (I think), contact a local health insurance firm, and see if there are other options that have not been mentioned so far.
Good luck, hope this helps.