Your health insurance in early retirement

If you are an American who wants to retire earlier than most, then your employer-supplied healthcare insurance might be your biggest worry. How are you going to substitute for it in retirement? 

Here is what I have found on this topic.  


The ACA (the affordable care act)

If ACA still exists when you retire, and you qualify for subsidies, you are in a great condition. Just make sure that there are local doctors under the ACA plan you buy. Great articles on ACA are already available. Here is one from GoCurryCracker. Two others come from RootofGood: here and here. 

The couple from the YouTube channel Our Rich Journey also discusses ACA.

 
Direct primary care

Direct Primary Care (DPC) is an alternative payment model for primary care, it is not an insurance. From the website of Direct Primary Care, here is the most important information about the system. DPC utilizes a flat-fee system that covers comprehensive primary care services. The website mentions in different places $70-$100 a month per member. DPC allows for sufficient time spent between patient and physician. DPC practices usually have extended hours, ready access to urgent care, and “patient panel sizes small enough to support this commitment to service”. As a DPC patient, you can choose your personal physician. Currently, there are over 1,000 DPC practices in 48 states that provide primary care to more than 300,000 patients. However, the DPC practices are unevenly distributed throughout the country. Check their map here. 

According to the news of DPC website, DPC is better than ACA. However, DPC is not an insurance plan and does not cover medical costs outside the primary care practice. Therefore, patients of DPC should have a high deductible or "health share" plan to be an ACA qualified healthcare plan. 

Here is a brief video about DPC that emphasizes the price, convenience and prevention concept. There is also a warning about the medical conditions that would not be covered by DPC or a high deductible or "health share" plan.

 
Healthcare sharing ministries

Another option are the healthcare sharing ministries. These are not insurance plans either. Such organizations take the biblical command to do good and share with others. The members commit to belief in God, freedom, and ethics. The benefit is that the members make affordable monthly contributions online to match the medical needs within their group. One such ministry is Liberty Shares that offers three different programs. Here are the monthly fees: for a single under 30 (and 30 and over):  $249 ($299),  for a couple under 30 (and 30 and over): $349 ($399), and for a family of under age of 30 (and 30 and over):
$479 ($529).
 
Under the Liberty Complete program, after fulfilling the annual "unshared" amount ($1,000 for an individual, $1,750 for a couple, $2,250 for a family), the members can share eligible medical costs up to $1 million per incident.

Other healthshare ministries are the Christian Healthcare Ministries, Medi-Share, Samaritan Ministries, and the Freedom HealthShare. Keep in mind that the monthly share payments are not deductible from the U.S. federal income taxes as medical expenses or charitable deductions.


Medical tourism and international insurance

Of course, medical tourism already exists and will expand in the future. If you are permanently stationed abroad, you may consider international medical insurance. 

From this website comes an example insurance rate for a husband and wife, ages 62 and 60. The plans are offered by IMG Global Medical. Plan 1 covers the couple worldwide excluding the U.S., Canada, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Macau, Singapore, and Taiwan. This plan costs $2,260 per year with a $10,000 deductible. Plan 2 covers the couple worldwide coverage (anywhere, including the U.S). This plan costs $41,546 with a $100 deductible (I could not confirm the cost of the second plan via a quote). Other companies have different deals, for example, CignaGlobal Medical Plan adjusts the price according to where you live. 


 Go to a doctor only when you need (abroad)

This option is not for everyone. But here is the experience of Mr Free at 33 in Chiang Mai, Thailand. 

The affordability of healthcare in Thailand is also mentioned by the adorable couple Our Rich Journey.

Any other ideas on how to release your yoke without the fear of a health collapse in the retirement years?

A modern-life fairy tale

Do you like restoring houses and planting gardens? Or at least are you tempted by the thought of doing these activities? Of course, there will be the constraints of time and finances. You will also need imagination, grit and physical resilience. If you would like to relive your fantasies, then watch Escape to the Chateau.

 [Update: there is always a copyright issue, so the links would not work. You may need to search what is available at this time on YouTube.]

The show follows a British couple buying a chateau in France. The building dates back to the 1860s, when it was raised upon the foundations of a 15th-century fort. There are 45 rooms, a moat, 12 sprawling acres of land, and much more. The building has been empty for 40 years, when the couples buys it.

From reconstruction and rebuilding, to orchards and pigs, to boudoirs and gourmet seven-course dinners, it is all in the roller coaster of experiences. It is unbelievable how this couple makes it work.
 
The show is a mix of a fairy tale with incredible amount of work. And this is the reality – enormous effort has to supplement the flights of our imagination. There is no magic wand that we can wave. Here is the website of the creative couple.

Another version of a modern tale is this of the five from Honey Grove farm:

We are a family cohort of makers, bakers, gardeners and beekeepers. We are eaters, too, emboldened by the concepts of commensality and convivality. Our home and land is the inspiration behind all of our creative endeavours and we'd truly love to share it with you...

There are four young people living on six acres on Vancouver Island, BC, Canada, and you can find out more about them on their website. You may ask, who is the fifth on the farm? Well, it is Gus Sims, the dog who "offers workshops on unconditional love and forgiveness."

And now I am back to binge-watching Escape to the Chateau.  Au Revoir!

DREAMS MAKE REALITY

Have you watched the documentary about the day in the life of Dr. Mercola?

I did, twice. At first, I was jealous and envious, but then I said to myself, why not dream about the life he has?

Life is more palatable with dreams in it.

I dream that one day, I will be at least marginally financially independent and buy a small shack next to Mercola’s estate in North/Central Florida or somewhere else…

I will have a small garden with a few fruit trees: cherries, pears, apples, peaches, apricots, and may be figs? I will coax my spices into rampant growth, and grow a profusion of  celery and carrots (my favorite snack). If I can grow tomatoes, I would consider my life complete, as I can entirely survive on tomatoes, feta cheese and good crusty bread. Hm, how about a vineyard? I could also live on grapes and cheese.
 

Flowers are my weakness, so they will fill every nook and cranny not assigned to raising food. I might even accommodate a few beautiful hens for their eggs.

The shack will be close to the beach, so I can take long walks by the water, breathe the fresh ocean air, and absorb the uplifting expanse of sky and ocean merging in one on the horizon.

I will also limit my daily food intake within 6-8 hours, so that I can benefit from the intermittent fasting regimen (this timing allows the organism to dip into the fat storage for energy).
 
Taking care of my own needs may get boring, so I would definitely find a good cause to fight, or at least spread the word about healthy and creative life.

I may also go back to drawing, something I have not done since my teenage years. Drawing, back then, was the equivalent of meditation. It was a time of complete disconnect from the everyday din, and immersion in the world of the picture.

Pablo Picasso had said: ‘If you can imagine it, it’s real’. I feel it, I see it, I am almost there. I dream.