Health insurance
 

We are curious as we move from Washington State to Florida, and are giving up our employment health coverage in Washington (no Cobra): Who do you recommend as a great broker for health care insurance in The Villages or near there. Also, if you have been in this situation, moving and needing health care insurance, and you are under 65 with no Medicare or secondary insurance plan, what did you choose that gives good coverage and is reasonably priced? Thank you!

ehealthinsurance.com is a website that will give you information on numerous health insurance carriers within any state/location. You can make comparisons between various levels on coverage from a number of different companies.

Thanks, interesting site and lots of comparisons.

Check out AARP's Health Care Options. Ours is through United Healthcare.

Hi Jane032657

I find myself in the same situation. Have you found a good insurance policy?
This is really driving me crazy. I am not sure if I will be able to find affordable health insurance.

Please let me know how you make out.

Thanks
Domenick

Blue Cross is great and they have a office here in the Villages. Ask for Terry 352-259-0666.

We are just organizing our moving dates and details for coming to TV on a full time basis. Health care is on the agenda but not yet organized. I am going to follow up with the leads kindly provided by others in this post. I will be happy to report findings when I have done ths. We have coverage until the end of October before we move down. Come Nov 1, we will be paying for a plan.

Health Insurance
 

I believe I read right here on TOTV that you can get coverage at say $4,000 per year with a $5,000 per year deductible.

My plan is to take out cobra to bridge to medicare ealy next year.

I guess the ruling facts are how healthty you are and how much risk you are willing to take as to how healthy you will remain before you hit 65...

Good luck, I know it ain't gonna be easy....

I am 55. My husband is 61. I have a long wait before Medicare and my work does not have Cobra. I only like to bet at the slot machines. Anything can happen in a minute in regard to health even if you are like me and never walk into a doctor's office unless you are desperate. But that can change without any control by any of us. I do not mind the higher deductible but I want to make sure that there is good coverage if G-d forbid there is a serious health issue. Today, I am good, I am blessed. No one gives me a guarantee for tomorrow. Scares me.

We moved from Washington three years ago and faced this problem. My wife had a Blue Cross HSA in Washington. We hung on for as long as we could by essentially begging for extensions while she looked for another policy. It lasted for about a year before she was kicked off her insurance. She was forced to go with a Blue Cross Conversion policy due to her preexisting (have you seen a doctor in the past 5 years?) conditions at double the premium. The month before she went on Medicare, that premium jumped another 20%.

Consider retaining your Washington residency for as long as possible. Otherwise you are pretty much screwed. The new health care law does nothing to address the transportability of insurance because you moved across state lines. It does have policies available now for people with preexisting conditions, but you have to be without insurance for 6 months before you are eligible, if you want to take that risk.

Thank you, we bought a home in The Villages and are moving permanantly in November. The house in Washington will be sold. I have medical for myself and husband through my work but we are not cobra eligible (*my employer) until next year so I will miss that. I guess we will be paying....

Insurance.....
 

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Just wondering......is there no COBRA available because there were fewer than 20 employees in the plan..??

If that is not the case.......COBRA has to be availale, according to Federal law.

Also, you may wish to check GROUP coverage...thru U.S. Chamber of Commerce...
or ANY other appropriate providers' group plan......Costs less than $1000 bucks to form a business here.....and...
..IF you had a business in the past....you know what I am alluding to......

Maybe you could start it B4 you terminate the current coverage......and.......
as stated prior.....If you used to sign the FRONT of paychecks....you know the benefits therin....

We had less than 20 people in my organization last year until I hired 19 more people last fall which is why Cobra will be in place January 1. Yes I sign the checks as Executive Director. My husband will continue to have a business in Florida, so we could join up with an association such as The Chamber, that is a good idea too. I will look at all of it. Thank you!

Be careful as COBRA will break your insurance coverage as far as Medicare is concerned. You will not be moving from an approved health plan.

After reading all the posts, I called Terry at BCBS in The Villages (got his name here in this thread) and since I need coverage for about 18mos. until i turn 65, I wanted to know if I could get better/cheaper coverage than COBRA. The short answer is YES - there are lots of choices for me and for my husband when her eventually retires and goes onto his Medicare "full-time". I think it's worth a call to him. Good luck & I hope we meet - we'll be down in September

Anne

My husband was a self employed CPA. Unfortunately he has diabetes. I lost an accounting job because the company went under and I went to work for him, expecting that we could buy health insurance affordably. Ha! Once they heard he had diabetes, at that time they would not sell us insurance at any price! That has changed slightly but the cost now is unbelievable and unaffordable.

I had to quit my accounting job and take a bottom of the barrel secretarial job because it offered great health care benefits but paid just over minimum wage. Then, to top it off we had to hire a highly paid accountant to do my job. I know virtually no small accounting firm that can afford to offer health insurance and I'm certain that applies to other small businesses.

Unless we can get a grip on our healthcare system, someone in your family is going to have to get a low-paying job with benefits at Walmart or other big box business if you want healthcare for your family.I know dozens of families who already do that. And you can take that to the bank.

Jane032657, when we moved to Florida about 20 years ago we lost all health insurance, but my husband filed papers for a small business and then we were able to get into a group health care program for small business owners. I will get that info to you asap.

cobra to medicare
 

You mentioned this before and I checked with Medicare and they advised you can go from Group insurance to Cobra to Medicare no problem. I guess the caveat is that you need to start Meidcare the month you turn 65. If you pass 65 then I agree you can have a problem. That's the case anytime you decide not to start medicare at 65 cause there are penalties

Please provide something in writing that states what you claim.

PLEASE!!!

Thanks Mudder. Seattle is not the same without you.

Just a reminder, COBRA only lasts for 18 months. Even if your employer provided it, at 55 I don't think it will be much help for you. Also the employer is permitted to charge you, I think it's 2% over what he pays for the insurance. where I worked, there were a lot of really shocked employees who didn't realize they were only paying less that 10% of the total cost while working and then were presented with the entire cost plus two percent. That hurts!

Health Insurance
 

We moved here from PA last October, and in PA we had Blue Cross/Shield. One of the first things that we had to do was get health insurance. We, too, are not yet 65, and went to a broker in TV. There were a few plans from which to choose, and being in pretty good health, we opted for Blue Cross of Florida. The cost to us is a little less than what we had to pay in PA, BUT we choose a $10000. deductible and started an HSA and contributed the max last year. So far, so good. The good thing about the BC here, is we could establish with a doctor - even specialists - and the first visit as a new patient was no cost to us. One other thing...you have to get your Florida drivers license within a small time line, which shows that you cannot keep your out of state residency. We had to surrender our PA drivers licenses when we got our Florida ones. Good luck to you.