| | | I'm going to share some experiences that may help you...BUT please do not bombard me with a ton of followup questions (as you are wont to do and which I will not answer).
1. I retired early (age 50) and was without any healthcare insurance (BTW I'm extremely healthy). At the time I was single and ignorantly paid the asking price out of my pocket. I quickly learned that CASH combined with no insurance is a golden combination for getting at least a 50% discount for quoted prices (if you can get a quote ahead of time, but that's another issue). When you get the bill, contact the billing department, tell them you are uninsured (which means no insurance hassles for them) and will pay cash for a discount. If you don't immediately get a 50% discount, escalate your request.
2. I then remarried and, since we are both Christians, I investigated Christian Healthcare Ministries. Indeed you need a letter from your pastor that certifies you follow a Christian lifestyle (e.g. not a homosexual, heavy drinker, smoker, recreational drug user, etc). When I had this coverage prior to going reaching Medicare age, the cost was around $5000 per year with a $5000 deductible (we mainly wanted catastrophic coverage, not every little thing that came along). When I had kidney stone surgery, the total bill was around $10,000, but the way CHM handles claims they use the full list price, not the actual price. So I contacted the hospital billing department, negotiated a 50% discount, filed the claim for $10000 and was reimbursed $5000 (after my $5000 deductible) which completely paid that bill with no net out of pocket cost other than temporarily funding the $5000 payment to the hospital.
3. When I reached 65 (Medicare age) I joined Blue Cross Medicare Advantage which had a maximum out of pocket limit of around $2000 per year (remember that I wanted mainly catasrtrophic coverage). That worked well for several years but BCBS began escalating the out of pocket maximum until it reached over $6000 which began to make the plan questionable for us.
4. I then opted for straight Medicare with a Blue Cross High Deductible supplement, which had a maximum out of pocket once again around $2000. Another advantage of Medicare is that you don't need to worry about getting approvals for "out of network" providers as Medicare Advantage requires. I had a prostate cancer issue for which I went to the best prostate cancer oncologist in the country in Los Angeles for diagnosis (I'm in NC) and then had radiation therapy at UCLA by the doctor who invented the treatment. Having straight Medicare made this very simple compared to what would have been requried by the Medicare Advantage approval process.
5. BTW, because we're very healthy, I also made the decision to not subscribe to Part D Drug Coverage. This was an educated guess and risk, based on my health history. I can afford $xx,xxx drugs (excluding chemo) per year but am planning to opt for off-patent drugs for most cases, if necessary. Or I might opt to forego any outrageous drugs and just head to my final destination sooner. LOL!
I hope this helps and gives you some things to check out as YOU DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH.
Good luck! |
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