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Strategies & Market Trends : Dividend investing for retirement -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Steve Felix who wrote (28138)	11/5/2017 10:22:51 AM
From: John Koligman	2 Recommendations Recommended By Kip S Max Fletcher Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 34328

Steve, there is a lot to chew on in your post <ggg>. My wife and I are self employed and have had ACA insurance since it's inception. Let's tackle your situation first. Your comment on financial 'help' rising is because Trump stopped paying CSR subsidies to the insurance companies as he claimed it was a 'bailout'. The part of this he does not tell you is that the insurance firms still have to provide these CSR subsidies to lower income buyers, so they have jacked up rates for 2018 in many cases as high as 30%. In some states they spread this additional cost over all their plans, in others they load the increases into Silver plans as those plans have the lower deductibles and copays that the CSR subsidies cover. SO, the government ends up paying anyway, and I have seen studies that they will actually pay MORE and add to the deficit in the longer term. As far as which plan to buy, I think it really boils down to how much your family might use the policy, in some cases it would be cheaper to go for the lower priced plan with the higher deductible, in others the higher priced plan with the lower deductible. I can tell you that in my case my wife and I are pretty close to 'medicare age', and we are going with a plan the covers the doctors we like and has a lower deductible although it costs more. Now on to your friend in South Carolina. What you have posted for him puzzles me. Just for grins I plugged in a Charleston zip code and went through Healthcare.gov for two 60 year olds with a $34,000 income. The result is that they would get an almost $2,000 per month subsidy and could buy a decent silver plan with a lower deductible for $247/month. This plan itself runs $2168 per month but the subsidy they would receive covers the vast majority of the cost. The plan I show below has an individual deductible of $690 per person and a max out of pocket cost of $5850. There are 22 plans in all available for that zip code with pricing starting at zero but with higher out of pocket costs. For older folks I always like to suggest that the plans that cover more at lower deductibles if available are best. For a couple with a $34,000 income, they can buy silver plans with lower out of pocket costs because of the additional CSR subsidies that are available.. I'm pretty familiar with how the ACA works so if you have more questions let me know. Extra savingsBlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina · BlueEssentials Silver 1SilverEPOPlan ID: 26065SC0380002 Estimated monthly premium $247.17 Was: $2,167.82 Deductible $690Individual Total $1,380Family Total Out-of-pocket maximum $5,850Individual Total $11,700Family Total Copayments / CoinsuranceEmergency room care: $300 Copay with deductible/50% Coinsurance after deductibleGeneric drugs: $30Primary doctor: $30Specialist doctor: $60 Estimated total yearly costs Medical providers & prescription drugs covered

To: Steve Felix who wrote (28138)	11/5/2017 10:33:32 AM
From: Ditchdigger	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 34328

Any way they can reduce their magi? Looking at the tables it appears there is a major difference between and income of $34K vs. $32,480. (here they could get a pretty good policy 87% AV--that is better than the BCBS gold policy.That silver 94 plan is better than a platinum plan )

To: Steve Felix who wrote (28138)	11/5/2017 8:05:32 PM
From: The Alchemist	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 34328

"They are not offering the same policy on The Market this year. Last years cost was $282.32 a month on a $2423.32 a month policy. They sent us a letter telling us that the same policy would be $1,190.80 a month on a $3,331.80 a month policy cost. I think it is "part of the game" to not offer the policy again on the market, and send out the notice. Maybe some will just continue on. After I enter all our info, I find that in Pa. "financial help" has gone from $2.141.00 to $3160.00. Why? I have no idea. We are offered two bronze plans. Geisinger HMO ( what we had, but silver ) from $2162 a month / $12,200 deductible ( family ), max $14,750 out of pocket. ( All plans are $14,750 max out of pocket. ) PPO from Capitol Blue Cross $2758.48 a month / $14,700 deductible. Both would be free to us. Two silver plans. Geisinger HMO we would pay $171.80 a month / $9,300 deductible. Blue Cross PPO - we would pay $956.06 a month / $10,000 deductible. Two Gold plans. Blue Cross - we would pay $590.96 a month / $4000 deductible. Geisinger HMO - we pay nothing / $6,000 deductible. Our family doctor is in the Geisinger network, not in Blue Cross network. Just curious if anyone would not take the free gold plan, and/or can figure out a rhyme or reason? So I am excited to help the wife's friend out with free healthcare. Then I come to find out that if you live in South Carolina you only get $2,200 of "financial help", even though your income is half of the cut off. Their cheapest silver plan is $210 a month, and the old man says he isn't paying that. In SC, even the bronze plans come with a cost. They are offered four at $5.34 to $5.46 a month. " What a conundrum. I'm relatively young for this board at 31, and I don't doubt your facts at all, but almost none of this makes any sense to me. How can a "bronze" plan cost over $2,000 per month for you but be about $5 per month in SC. Further, why would anyone take a plan where you pay when you can get a "gold" plan for no out of pocket cost per month like the Geisiner HMO? Healthcare is a wreck.