I am thinking of pulling the plug on work when I turn 60 next year. So tired of the 60 mile commute into Dallas 5 days a week and working with Heavy metals. Is anybody getting health insurance through healthcare.gov? I guess its Obama care. From what I can tell if income less than $48000 for single person you get around a $850 monthly credit and would end up costing me about $270 a month.
I guess I'll be the odd man out. I've been on ACA for 3 years and have 15 months before going on Medicare. The open enrollment starts November 1, and insurance providers lock in a rate contract with the government around October 15, then start selling policies. Once that happens ACA should live another year since funds are allocated. If Trump does come out with a better and cheaper plan it would be easy enough to transition over to that, but with 30 million people using ACA, this will take some time.
I have no issues with the plan or my insurance provider. We chose a plan which was $1500 family deductible and when Mrs~t~ moved to Medicare it went to $750 for only me. The credit was between $3400 and $3600 per month (it's based on income), so our premium was $0. We only have one ACA provider in the state (Blue Cross) which every healthcare provider accepts. So, I kept my same doc's, and same pharmacy. We did buy a rider for vision and dental. Looking at the numbers and using the cost of a non-ACA policy from Blue Cross
without the ACA premium, I have saved $120,000 so far and when I move to Medicare the savings will be around $150,000.
Now, for the rest of the story. You need to plan for retirement, and part of that planning is insurance costs. The ACA only cares about your income, which you estimate based on a number of factors. Your net worth is not a factor for eligibility. So, for a starting place.... drag out your IRS 1040s and look at line 7 on the newer form, or line 37 on the older forms, 3 or 4 years of returns should be fine. This is your AGI (or MAGI) which is your adjusted gross income, or modified adjusted gross income. Everything before the AGI line counts, everything after the AGI line doesn't count as income. There is a slot limit you must fit into, around $11,000 for the minimum
family income, and around $65,000 for the maximum
family income. If you are between those numbers you qualify. I suspect if you are still working, your income is more than the maximum, so back out your income from your job, and see how that affects your AGI. Your goal is to remain in the slot limit. If you go under, and have a reason, you get a second chance next year. If you go over, even by $1, you loose eligibility and have to repay all the credits. Like $37,000 worth. So it's really important to make a good estimate of what your income in retirement will be. If things change, you call the ACA and modify your estimated income. A big change may affect the credit, so they apply that beginning the next month. If you look to be coming in under the minimum, you can take a one-time withdrawal from your IRA in December.
Income is family income, so even if your spouse is still working and insured through work, her income counts and appears as a part of your AGI. If you or your spouse goes on Medicare, and decides to start taking Social Security.... that is also income, and may put you over the maximum limit.
Our plan was to accumulate a comfortable amount of cash before retiring, not take any distributions from IRA's (Roth IRAs are exempt), and not take Social Security because these things count as income and raise your AGI. I have some investment property that I knew I would hold (if I sold it, any profit is income) and my remaining income is all royalties, interest, dividends and capital gains on investments. You should get a general idea of any int, div, cap gains from your old 1040 forms. I track this information from monthly statements during the year, just so there are no surprises.
For starters.... Create an account at healthcare.gov then run some sample scenarios. The first few pages are general info, then you get to the sections on plans. There are Bronze, Silver, and Gold plans.... and sub-plans under each one. You basically pick a deductible and the details you want (like $5 prescriptions) and the site calculates your credit and premium cost. You can save each scenario and compare it with another. As you enter different income amounts, it shows how the credit and premium is affected. There are insurance advisors out there, we did all the groundwork first, and had a plan selected, then went in for a 2-hour meeting which cost $150. They confirmed all our information. Normally the fees are in the $400 range if the advisors start from scratch. You also want to visit with your financial advisor. We rolled over 401Ks to self directed IRA s and I converted all bonds to CD ladders, and have unloaded most of my foreign investments until this pandemic settles down. I re balanced my equities to be a hair more conservative.