Yesterday was the 4th anniversary of my heart attack in 2019. Thankfully, all has been good with my ticker since then. I recently had a “nuclear stress test” done where they put uranium into you before & during a steep treadmill run. It’s exhausting. The good news is that my numbers were identical to 4 years ago. The bill for the test just arrived and … Continue reading Running The Health Insurance Treadmill
I waited a long time to get a look at my MegaCorp retiree health insurance benefits and they just arrived. It’s open enrollment time right now and I just booked my new insurance plan. As background, I worked at one MegaCorp for 24 years and a second for just 3. I’m an official retiree of the first one, where I went from temporary Administrative Assistant … Continue reading MegaCorp Retiree Health Coverage
I think we’ve made it! The biggest concern that most early retirees have is how they will manage the cost of health insurance between leaving MegaCorp and gaining retiree benefits or Medicare eligibility. It’s a topic I’ve provided many updates on over the last 5 years because health insurance is an expensive and dynamic market. This is the last year of open enrollment where we … Continue reading Health Insurance – Open Enrollment
It was about 10 months ago I wrote my ‘first take’ on where 2019 Health Insurance premiums were likely to come in. It was good news and I was surprised to learn that our premiums were falling by $4K from the year before. I called it a ‘first take’, because I wasn’t sure the benefit would actually come through. Fortunately it has, as you can … Continue reading Health Insurance Rebate In The Mail
We’re heading on our big trip of the year next month and I’ve been looking into our health insurance coverage. I’ve taken dozens of overseas trips for fun or for work over the years, but I’ve honestly never bothered to understand how I was covered for any medical issues. Recently, a of couple situations came up that caused me to rethink my ‘ignorance is bliss’ … Continue reading Travel Medical Insurance
Tomorrow is Election Day. It far exceeds April Fool’s Day in terms of the number of people who get pranked! A lot of this year’s focus continues to be on health insurance, so with November Open Enrollment now here, I thought I would take a quick look at what premiums we are likely to pay in 2019. I titled this post as a ‘First Take’ … Continue reading Health Insurance for 2019 – First Take
A couple months ago, I did a 45 minute phone interview with a reporter writing for Kiplinger’s on health insurance for early retirees. She said that she had read our FIRE story on this blog and in particular a post called “Health Insurance – The Biggest Worry For Early Retirees” caught her attention. She appreciated that we had included the dollars & cents in the … Continue reading Bam! My Interview with Kiplinger’s
I thought our health insurance drama was over this year when we settled on a new plan during open enrollment in November. I wrote about our new plan then, which included a premium jump of more than 30% despite doubling our premium to $13K and dramatically dialing back the doctors and clinics we could go to in-network. As I wrote then, the insurance market in … Continue reading Early Retirement Health Insurance – Open Enrollment (Bonus Chapter)
I wasn’t sure how many ‘parts’ there may be to our health insurance open enrollment this year, but we got it sorted out pretty quickly. While the cost increases are dramatic, the fact that there are actually less options to look at makes the shopping process relatively quick. Not painless, but quick. You’ll remember from our earlier post that our incumbent health insurance provider was … Continue reading Early Retiree Health Insurance – Open Enrollment (Part 2)
I am titling this post “Part 1” as I am expecting the challenge of organizing our health care coverage for 2017 to be a multi-part personal finance adventure. I explained how we were approaching health insurance in early retirement this past spring, but it seems that all of the cards are up in the air again and we are likely looking at a 33%-50% increase … Continue reading Early Retiree Health Insurance – Open Enrollment (Part 1)
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