If you’re a Christian:
Samaritans
Medishare
What some people do is beef up the medical insurance on their auto policy. Why? Because below a certain age, most people are most likely to get seriously injured in an auto accident. This is especially true in your 20s and 30s (clearly you are well beyond that).
Everyone is different and I don’t know your circumstances. Just throwing that out there for you to consider.
I do short term insurance. Never had a claim other than office visit so I don’t know the difficulty of payout. There are a wide variety of choices. You can use ehealthinsurance.com but you won’t always see all available options from a particular carrier.
My thinking is that if I end up not being able to get the next 6 month insurance because I had a claim I could always then sign up for ridiculously priced Obamacare.
I understand there is a difference.
/johnny
My recommendations: negotiate lower cash prices at your doctor, use Urgent Care clinics, look at the Surgery Center of Oklahoma (low cash posted prices - surgerycenterok.com), Take chelated mineral supplements like Solaray Mega Minerals and Vitamins, reduce sugar and refined carbs in your diet, laugh a lot and stop watching the news on TV.
DITTOS to Westbrook’s post 2 -
My wife and I are almost 62. We’ve had no insurance starting in the day Obama’s became law. It’s been so long that buying it now feels like a lack of faith. And we’ve learned, through our experience and that of acquaintances that you save 50-75% on prices when you don’t have insurance. We see it now as just a really bad investment. And few know about the 8% thing. :-)
I have found a group of doctors who take NO government money at all. They are here in Augusta , Maine. They offer everything except long term hospitalization ....there is a yearly fee and all prices are given prior to services being rendered. It is a win - win situation for all parties involved. As far as I am concerned the federal government is THE enemy on more than just this front , they can go f ___ themselves as far as I am concerned.
Health sharing ministries are turning into the cheapest alternative to Obamacare exchange health plans that still meet the requirements under the law for coverage.
Alternatives to Obamacare
http://hubpages.com/health/Alternatives-to-Obamacare
Good and excellent replies on FR, but also post your question on https://www.bogleheads.org/
If fact, I tell friends that any question that involves a dollar sign ($) is or has prob been discussed on bogleheads.
So search bogleheads first, if you don’t find a similar question to yours, then post your question. Bogleheads and Mods will link you to resources/similar questions or reply outright to your question.
Good Luck and God’s Blessings to your search.
I am an agent in California, and it is a difficult issue now that prices are high and there are few alternatives. Temporary Health plans are one way to go, but there is zero coverage for pre-existing conditions. There is no coverage for preventative coverage of any sort and most temp plans are PPO plans, the buyer needs to make sure that their hospital and doctors are contracting with the PPO network your chosen temp coverage plan has.
You may sill qualify for a subsidy if you income falls within the guidelines. Open enrollment starts today and continues through the end of Feb. You still have time to sort it out.
In case you missed it post #21 is the answer the solution.
I do not intend to sound insensitive, but if you and your wife were planning on retiring at that early age, why didn’t you plan for insurance.
If you are in a serious accident, the rest of us are paying for you.
Thanks for nothin.
Bookmark
I believe the 8% rule applies to the Bronze plan. If there is Bronze plan in your county that is under 8% of your income, you wouldn't qualify for the hardship..
Be very careful. DH is retired and won’t go to Medicare until mid-2016. His BCBS took a huge price hike effective Jan. 2016, adding an extra $200/mo. (Evidently, Tennessee insurance companies were granted the largest percentage increase of all states!)
He spent hours and days searching for alternatives. (As a PhD in Science, he over-researches everything.) He selected a short-term plan offered by a company out of Baltimore. Looked pretty good and included dental coverage which (allegedly) included our dentist as a provider. Payments were automatic, to be deducted from our checking account. They requested a credit card number anyhow — to verify credit rating, we assumed. That was Wednesday.
Friday he called the dentist to set up an appointment and asked, “by the way, I’m confirming that you participate in the xxxx plan because that will kick in in January”. They’d never heard of it. He called the insurance company back and cancelled the entire thing.
Sunday evening as we were headed for church, our MasterCard carrier called to ask if we had made a certain charge in Iowa. We hadn’t. We hung up and called the number on our card to make sure the first caller hadn’t been conning us. She was not. Yes; someone had tried to charge to our card.
We’d had this card and number for 30+ years with never a problem. So we’ll get new cards this week and even as we speak, he’s on the other line cleaning up the mess. Bottom line: We feel this was not a coincidence, and perhaps this company is a fraud or, at the least, possibly will do bad things to you if you cancel.
Anyhow, be careful. Go with a reputable larger company if you go short-term.
We were impressed with MasterCard to have identified a purchase as a possible fraud. The amount wasn’t large, but the purchase was outside of our normal pattern so they were alerted.