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Non-Tech : Kirk's Market Thoughts -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Elroy who wrote (11842)	8/26/2021 12:59:32 AM
From: wilywilly	Respond to of 26837

How does that work? You got any recommended names to check out. I have no idea, but Google is your friend.

To: Elroy who wrote (11842)	8/26/2021 10:00:29 AM
From: DaYooper	1 Recommendation Recommended By Kirk © Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 26837

I have a family, but don't qualify for ACA subsidies Realize it's based on AGI and unrelated to assets. I didn't qualify the first few years of early retirement as I was actively trading one stock to generate income. And since I "retired" from trading I still didn't qualify a couple years that some MLPs were acquired by their general partners and all the unrealized gains finally hit my AGI those years. But now with the trading done and all the MLPs gone I can manipulate my AGI under the limit of $47,000 for a single person. If you can keep your AGI under about $100,000 for a family of four the government will pay most of your health insurance premiums. I had always planned on early retirement and taking cheap catastrophic insurance until 65 but the law disallows companies from selling that option (except to 20 somethings I think). So instead just working within the framework they created. I had to pay the much higher premiums myself the first 6 years and now they are paying the last 6 years until reaching medicare. Probably works out as a wash for me.

To: Elroy who wrote (11842)	8/26/2021 1:16:57 PM
From: w0z	2 Recommendations Recommended By Kirk © robert b furman Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 26837

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!