Advice for 64 Year Old for 11 months

[OlderGuy]

I am retired and live in Illinois. Will turn 65 in December of 2020 and be Medicare eligible. Currently have a 364 day short term health plan with a $10,000 deductible (100%/$0 copay thereafter which expires 12/27/19. Illinois now has a 6 month limit on short term policies. I'm healthy, active, no prescriptions and only go to doctor for wellness visits which I don't need until Medicare. Any advice for cost effective 11 month bridge?

 

[fed up]

Petersen Underwriters Bridge Plan

 

[myinsurebiz]

Put some money in a shoe box if healthy

 

[OlderGuy]

Health and have the money in a shoe box. Was hoping for something more. Are a hospital indemnity plan or christian health network the only options and then switch back to a 6 month short term plan in June until Medicare eligible in December?

 

[Yagents]

Shoe box? Terrible advice.

Better advice is to move states, or sue the state for limiting your choices to protect yourself.

Or buy aca for 4 months, ride 30 day grace for month 5, buy stm for rest

 

[OlderGuy]

Move states-will do that in the next few years as IL is a disaster. Was planning to take the ACA route until I can bridge with STM to Medicare. Incredible how expensive ACA is if you don't need it. A good value if you're in the pre-existing condition bucket.

 

[StephanieCJ]

Get something. One of my clients decided not to take ACA for the 8 months before turning 65. Great health, no RX, heart attack 2 mo before Medicare started. He was really happy about his supplemental insurance when he got it.

 

[OlderGuy]

Thanks Stephanie. Hopefully I won't be in your next story. Decided to roll the dice a little bit. Will go with 6 month ST policy with $10k deductible and then another ST policy in July to bridge to 12/1 Medicare. Realize I'm taking an informed risk since I will need to get approved in June for the next policy. $600/month in cost savings was too much to ignore with only 11 months to go to Medicare and good health. Wii fund approximately 660 bottles of decent red wine and 330 bottle of good red wine.

 

[InsuranceGuy29]

In Illinois, Short-Term polices can be written for up to 6 months, then you need to have a government-mandated 2 month gap between Short-Term policies.

They want to funnel everyone onto the Obamacare exchange, even though it's extremely unaffordable for many people.

You can fill that two months with a hospital indemnity plan. Hospital indemnity gives you a fixed dollar amount for many services, like overnight hospital stays, doctor visits, labs, MRI's, etc.

The Illinois government is atrocious in allowing people to decide what is best for themselves. I "affectionately" like to refer to it as the "Democratic Peoples Republic of Illinois" or "DPRI."

These are pretty much your only options. Ever since the government got involved, choices are limited, competition is low, and prices are high. I would also advise against Christian networks. Not saying some of them can't be good, but they aren't legally enforceable, and things are generally fine until someone gets really sick and starts to drain the coffers.