[anothersteve]

I moved here from NY and my personal health insurance was/is 1100 a month. I surly cannot afford that here being recently retired. I'm good for another month with it. What's a boy to do after that expires? Health exchange? personal insurance? I am a Vet but seems there is a cap on coverage that is based on previous years income? Any info and direction would be appreciated.
Thanks, Steve

[retiredguy123]

The Obamacare website is supposed to provide an affordable insurance option with a subsidy based in income. I would start there.

[tophcfa]

Originally Posted by retiredguy123

The Obamacare website is supposed to provide an affordable insurance option with a subsidy based in income.

That's the key word, "supposed" to. My wife and I pay $26,000 per year for insurance before co-pays and deductibles. Hardly affordable. Something needs to be changed. We don't like to be wishing we were older so we can get medicare, assuming it's still there when we turn 65.

[PoolBrews]

Yes, but to get any type of subsidy, you need to have an annual income of at least $16,020 for a married couple, or $11,880 if you are single. So, if you retired early, are not drawing pension or social security yet, this makes it difficult to qualify for they subsidy.

[collie1228]

Since Obamacare was at least partially intended to get many more people on Medicaid, living in Florida can cause problems with the subsidy. Florida never passed the expanded Medicaid income requirements prescribed by Medicare, so if your income falls above the current Florida Medicaid income level requirement and below the Obamacarer income level requirement, you'll get no subsidy.

[rustyp]

If you have retired early and not of Medicare age (I did) you probably have access to various sources of non tax and taxable income. You can get substantial subsidy with an income of up to around mid $50K for married filing jointly. Here is the key - the subsidy is granted on your projection of what your income will be next year. Not at all like you would expect. Usually that sort of thing is based on last years tax return but not for this. After tax money doesn't count as income (like a savings account) and only certain types of untaxed money counts as income. Thus if you draw out enough pre tax money this year to keep next years income below the mid $50K and above being on Medicaid this could be very beneficial. You obvious need to see if the subsidy is worth paying the taxes this year. A word of caution you can not be receiving any health care assistance like from a former employer. Go to the affordable care website and play around with the subsidy calculator. From first hand I went from $1600/month to around $200/month with the subsidy and for better coverage. Another word of caution if you end up going over your projection for income in the year you are receiving the subsidy stiff penalties apply.

[anothersteve]

Originally Posted by rustyp

If you have retired early and not of Medicare age (I did) you probably have access to various sources of non tax and taxable income. You can get substantial subsidy with an income of up to around mid $50K for married filing jointly. Here is the key - the subsidy is granted on your projection of what your income will be next year. Not at all like you would expect. Usually that sort of thing is based on last years tax return but not for this. After tax money doesn't count as income (like a savings account) and only certain types of untaxed money counts as income. Thus if you draw out enough pre tax money this year to keep next years income below the mid $50K and above being on Medicaid this could be very beneficial. You obvious need to see if the subsidy is worth paying the taxes this year. A word of caution you can not be receiving any health care assistance like from a former employer. Go to the affordable care website and play around with the subsidy calculator. From first hand I went from $1600/month to around $200/month with the subsidy and for better coverage. Another word of caution if you end up going over your projection for income in the year you are receiving the subsidy stiff penalties apply.

Yes I retired early and won't be collecting SS until Feb. My income for 2018, because of retireing early was only 48,000. My income for 2019 will be substantially less. So how does that fair?
Thanks for the post. That's the info I was looking for.
Steve

[rustyp]

Originally Posted by anothersteve

Yes I retired early and won't be collecting SS until Feb. My income for 2018, because of retireing early was only 48,000. My income for 2019 will be substantially less. So how does that fair?
Thanks for the post. That's the info I was looking for.
Steve

Like I stated you need to go to Get 2018 health coverage. Health Insurance Marketplace | HealthCare.gov and play around with the subsidy calculator. However 2019 enrollment is not available yet. I played around using a 2018 account. Here is the results for a single not married taxpayer with various incomes:
$48000 - subsidy = $6691/yr
$13000 - subsidy = 11318/yr
$12000 - no subsidy because income is so low you qualify for Medicaid

As you can see it is very beneficial to plan ahead in this tax year to maximize next year's subsidy. Example if you are planning to live on $48K next year pull out $35K this year and pay the taxes on it 2018 and project an income of $13k for next year. That could have a potential of getting you extra $4627 in subsidy. Likewise if you have an income of $49K you get no subsidy due to your projected income being too high and simply pulling out $1K this year gets you a $6691 subsidy.

This is not a case where common sense prevails. If you have trouble doing this alone I would go to an independent financial planner. If he/she doesn't know about this right off the top of their head walk away immediately and find another.