What Do We Do About Health Insurance?
Many of you have asked how we handle health insurance while on the road, so the following post will answer that question.
Being “quit-ired” has LOTS of benefits! However, one benefit that doesn’t come with quitirement is health insurance. Neither of us worked for companies/organizations where health insurance continuance from the employer, beyond separation, was granted to the employee until age 65. So we have had to fend for ourselves.
There are many different options available to people who live the lives that we are living. Most though, have some criteria or requirements, that have made them unviable for us.
The Health Care Marketplace is a great place for most people to start. Given our significantly reduced annual income, we would definitely benefit from the premium “discounts” offered through the program. The drawback? We have remained (for a variety of reasons) residents of Illinois. The “Land of Lincoln” doesn’t offer a nationwide plan. We are ramblers, so we need something with coverage across all states.
Retired Military career people often can benefit from VA health coverage until age 65. Unfortunately, neither of us served in the military, so this isn’t an option for us.
Law Enforcement & Fire Service retirees often have full healthcare coverage from the time they retire until age 65. Again, as a nurse and teacher, we don’t.
Indemnity plans are a popular option in this corner of life. An indemnity plan is where you have a specific level of coverage for specific medical issues. For example, if you incur a broken arm, no matter what the medical cost for treatment is, you will be paid say $3500. If the cost is more, that money will come out of your pocket. If the cost is less, you keep the overage.
Major Medical plans are also very popular, but can be pretty expensive. In this scenario, you will be self-insured up to a specific dollar amount, say $5000 and then after that the remaining balance of the medical bills will be covered at a 80/20 split, or similar, with typically high annual/lifetime limits.
Health Saving Accounts (HSA) are incredibly beneficial as a means to put monies away to be used later for health care and offer an investment bonus. With an HSA, you have dollars deducted from your paycheck (pre-tax) while gainfully employed (and using a high deductible health plan) and the monies are invested, as you determine, in the market. Gains, so long as they are used for medical expenses, are also untaxed!! Now, should you incur a medical expense, you can first try to negotiate a cash payment discount with the provider and then use the funds set aside in the HSA to pay the bill. The withdrawal, when used for medical expenses, remains untaxed. The HSA remains yours when you leave the employer. Chris’ previous employer offered this as a benefit. We’ve had this “quitirement” plan in the works for several years, so we tried to maximize the yearly allowed investment in order to have money available to us now, if needed.
Health Sharing Ministry Programs are less popular, mostly because they are so foreign to what we have all experienced throughout our lives. They aren’t health insurance. They aren’t “normal”. Having said that they “aren’t normal” may give you a clue as to what we have chosen…
Here’s how a Health Sharing Ministry works:
With two people on the plan (we are using) the monthly “share” amount is $366 total. Now an example with details: Jonah Smith, a 14 year old boy, breaks his arm from a fall while riding his dirt bike. His parents bring him to the hospital. Jonah’s parents, upon arrival at the hospital tell the admission clerk that they do not have health insurance and that they will be paying CASH. Jonah gets all fixed up. Weeks later the bills arrive. Jonah’s parents call each biller and explain that they will be paying cash and they ask for a cash discount. In many cases, discounts in excess of 50% and up to 70% are provided!! Now, Jonah’s parents submit the remaining balance of the bills to the ministry to be “shared” with other members in the ministry. Lets say that the discounted cash payment total remains at $3000. Jonah’s parents pay this $3000 out of their pocket. This $3000 will be shared with how ever many people it takes until Jonah’s parents are made “whole.” The McCaffertys may be assigned to send their monthly “share” of $366 to the Smith family. We will send the “share” directly to them, enclosed in a “get-well” card wishing Jonah a speedy recovery, and assuring the Smiths that we are praying for them. Once everyone who was assigned to “share” their monthly “share” amount has sent it to the Smiths, the Smith family is made “whole.” Every family who submits a medical “need” must do their very best to get the “need” amount lowered through negotiating with the provider before submitting the “need” to the ministry. There are several Health Sharing Ministries out there. After lots of research on all the options listed above and the different sharing ministries, we chose to go with “Samaritan Ministries”. You can learn more about this organization by adding (.org) to the end of the name! (Ugh…What we have to do to try to outsmart the FB algorithms!).
So far our “shares” have been sent to; a boy who broke his arm in a dirt bike accident; a couple who are having their first child; a woman who suffered a stroke, and a couple to the ministry as overhead expense coverage.
We don’t have any preventative, annual care or dental coverage with this program, but that will be covered in a separate post.
We feel good about our decision to go with a “Health Sharing Ministry”. It’s definitely not for everyone, but it works for us.
Our next post will answer another one of the questions several of you asked. What are you wondering about? Put it in the comments below.
Please don’t forget to begin your a ma z on shopping by first visiting the Shamrock RV Service website and clicking on “store”.
All the best!!
Chris & Ken
