Health insurance wwyd

[Scarlett]

It feels really complicated but here is the situation I am trying to figure out for Jan 2017 insurance.

 

BCBS hi deductible independent plan for Dh and me will cost $1116 per month. Dh is out of work but I projected a reasonable income for the year because he will have to find work....so with the income I projected they give us full subsidy. Meaning we pay zero premium for this HD(6k) plan. However if Dh gets a good job that pushes us over the income limit we will be on the hook to repay all or part of the $1116 times however many months we will have received it by that time.

 

That frightens me.

 

There is a state funded low income insurance plan that costs $80 per month....but it has no deductible. Currently, with my part time job and ds16s job (yes they count even full time students income) and Dh not working we barely qualify. If Dh goes to work we will instantly not qualify and we have 30 days to contact them and tell them that bit of course Dh will hopefully have insurance with new job.

 

What would you do? Stay with BCBS or enroll in low income program for as long as you can?

[Murphy101]

I'd do the $80 plan as long as necessary. You can always switch to another plan if/when circumstances change?

[prairiewindmomma]

I don't have enough data to make a decision. 

 

1. How are your savings and cash flow?

2. What are your typical medical needs?

3. Is dh's new job likely to offer benefits?

4. Are you close enough to hire that you can assume that he will be employed soon? (In dh's field, it's often 4 months from initial interview to hire.)

[goldberry]

I would go with low income plan hoping that when DH's income changes, health insurance will come along with it.  

 

Are you sure the income change would make you liable retroactively?  Otherwise I would do the subsidy.

[prairiewindmomma]

You don't have to answer those, but I was inclined towards the $80/mo plan unless you have significant savings or he is waiting for an offer after an extensive interview process and you're fairly sure that's going to happen.

[DawnM]

Low income plan.  I am all for temporarily saving and not spending what you don't have.

Edited December 6, 2016 by DawnM

[Scarlett]

I don't have enough data to make a decision.

 

1. How are your savings and cash flow? Little savings and cash flow drying up

2. What are your typical medical needs? Dh needs some tests....he has nutcracker esophagus--meds not working....next step is a scope.

3. Is dh's new job likely to offer benefits? We pray....in fact he is willing to take less money in exchange for good benefits.

4. Are you close enough to hire that you can assume that he will be employed soon? (In dh's field, it's often 4 months from initial interview to hire.)

. No job prospect at the moment. He is searching hard now.

 

I answered other questions inside your post.

Edited December 6, 2016 by Scarlett

[Scarlett]

I would go with low income plan hoping that when DH's income changes, health insurance will come along with it.

 

Are you sure the income change would make you liable retroactively? Otherwise I would do the subsidy.

Not sure I understand what you are saying.......for example if we collect then$1116 for 6 months and then in July Dh gets a great job that by the end of the year takes us over the limit for that $1116 subsidy then yes we have to pay it back. Up to $6696. Of course if he doesn't get work until July it is unlikely our income will go that high. But if he gets work in March we would have to pay back two months worth....or probably 3 since you have to cancel by the 15 day of previous month.

 

I don't want to have to pay back anything....especially for such hd insurance that we can't afford to use it.

[Anne]

I would go with the $80 plan.  I would make sure I clearly understood and had written down the exact procedures for cancelling so that when the time comes (hopefully soon!) that you don't qualify for it anymore, it would be easy peasy for me to get it cancelled (speaking as someone who often gets lost in the weeds of "how do I cancel, where is that piece of paper, where is the number, etc., etc.).

 

Anne

[xixstar]

What we would do:

 

Take the cheapest market plan we can. We would not do the low income option because, we would not qualify for it long enough to make that logical because we would have additional income coming in within 30 days, regardless of if dh had found the right position or not. He or I both would be working somewhere, even temporary, to bring in additional funds because we live paycheck to paycheck at this point.

 

So we would take a plan we can get, with subsidies. And as soon as we are able we would begin stock piling the monthly premium into savings in case we have to pay it back. Once the next job is finalized and we know where we stand, we would be prepared to payback the subsidies if needed or simply apply the funds to anywhere else they are needed.

 

Additionally, we would not be going to the doctor during this time unless absolutely necessary.

[Scarlett]

What we would do:

 

Take the cheapest market plan we can. We would not do the low income option because, we would not qualify for it long enough to make that logical because we would have additional income coming in within 30 days, regardless of if dh had found the right position or not. He or I both would be working somewhere, even temporary, to bring in additional funds because we live paycheck to paycheck at this point.

 

So we would take a plan we can get, with subsidies. And as soon as we are able we would begin stock piling the monthly premium into savings in case we have to pay it back. Once the next job is finalized and we know where we stand, we would be prepared to payback the subsidies if needed or simply apply the funds to anywhere else they are needed.

 

Additionally, we would not be going to the doctor during this time unless absolutely necessary.

 

 

Well we never go to the doctor unless it is necessary.  Dh had to go this summer and it ended up costing us $1000 which I am still  paying on.  I figured even if we only qualify for the low income for one month it is one  month of decent coverage and one month I won't have to pay back $1116.

 

 

I don't know.  I have to make a decision soon.

[bethben]

We had this issue a couple of years ago.  We went on state sponsored medicaid because we all qualified when we tried to sign up for Obama care through our state exchange.  Somehow, just dh and myself also got signed up for BC/BS and that was a much bigger pain to get off of.  The state sponsored low income medical insurance was very easy to get off of when dh got a job with benefits.  The BC/BS we mysteriously got signed onto through the exchange was several phone calls to BC/BS, several overdue notices, and a few calls to our assigned financial social worker handling the medicaid system.  It took months to cancel a policy that we never needed nor signed up for.  Go with low income insurance.

[maize]

I'd do the $80 per month plan.

[Lady Florida.]

Well we never go to the doctor unless it is necessary. 

 

That can change very quickly and unexpectedly though.

 

You didn't say if the coverage is comparable, but I think I'd go for the $80 plan. Your dh's job situation could also change quickly and unexpectedly and if it was me I wouldn't want to be on the hook for repaying that huge monthly premium.

[Pippen]

If the plans offered comparable coverage, I'd go with the $80/no deductible plan even if it meant having ds cut back a few work hours to qualify.

 

I wouldn't go even a single day without health insurance. We had a medical crisis in which $1.5 was billed to insurance over about four months time. Over $2 million by the time the year was over.

[Ottakee]

I would take the state Insurance and deal with the next thing when it happens.

 

It is SO incredibly hard to predict our income for the next year. We are near the cut off so we need to figure it all out and we have a young adult child that has disability pending so that affects her insurance.

[happypamama]

I'd take the $80 a month plan. Even if you take the other one, that's a high deductible to meet when you're out of work. We were super healthy for years, DH and me (kids too, actually -- most of them have never even had a sick visit), and then we have been hammered with stuff. He had a major injury, and I had emergency appendix surgery. I've needed to see a doctor twice this pregnancy because of a UTI and then bleeding -- neither of which I've had in any other pregnancy. None of our medical needs have been related to chronic illnesses or things we could have predicted or planned for very well, and any savings we could have used would have been eaten up trying to pay bills during unemployment. My point is that I really would not have wanted to come up with a high deductible for those things while unemployed. You've undoubtedly paid into the system for years -- if it can help you now, let it, and don't worry.

Edited December 6, 2016 by happypamama

[prairiewindmomma]

I'd go with the $80 plan based on the additional info.

[SparklyUnicorn]

$80 plan, but I wonder what your hesitation is...is there some other detail/reason why you wouldn't go with that one?

[creekland]

I'd do the $80/month.

 

6K in deductibles means you'd never go to the Dr, or if you did and they found anything, you couldn't afford it anyway.  I assume the state plan would actually cover things at a more manageable level, esp since you said no deductible and your DH needs things done.

[Ravin]

It feels really complicated but here is the situation I am trying to figure out for Jan 2017 insurance.

 

BCBS hi deductible independent plan for Dh and me will cost $1116 per month. Dh is out of work but I projected a reasonable income for the year because he will have to find work....so with the income I projected they give us full subsidy. Meaning we pay zero premium for this HD(6k) plan. However if Dh gets a good job that pushes us over the income limit we will be on the hook to repay all or part of the $1116 times however many months we will have received it by that time.

 

That frightens me.

 

There is a state funded low income insurance plan that costs $80 per month....but it has no deductible. Currently, with my part time job and ds16s job (yes they count even full time students income) and Dh not working we barely qualify. If Dh goes to work we will instantly not qualify and we have 30 days to contact them and tell them that bit of course Dh will hopefully have insurance with new job.

 

What would you do? Stay with BCBS or enroll in low income program for as long as you can?

 

I would enroll in the low income program for as long as you can.

[AmandaVT]

Take the low income plan for as long as you can. There's no downside from what I can tell? If DH gets a job with insurance, you move off it. If he gets a job without insurance, you may still qualify for subsidies on the higher deductible plan. If his income goes up enough, you can (or at least you can on VT's exchange) report a change in income and pay more when his income goes up. That way, you won't get caught with a big fee at the end of the year.

[Scarlett]

Ok, I applied. Thanks for all the feedback.....it made me feel better to do it....

 

They asked questions about our kids other parents....and I had to answer 'yes' that I would cooperate with OK child support services! Ugh! That makes me so nervous and makes NO sense...because cs isn't counted as income and we aren't asking for insurance for the kids. Ugh! That is all I need for my XH or dh's XW to be contacted! XH is faithful about his cs payments and XW hasn't started making them yet since dss came to live with us because we don't have the paperwork filed yet.

 

Oh, well. Hopefully that won't be an issue.

Edited December 6, 2016 by Scarlett

[Lanny]

If the state funded program that costs $80  a month has no deductible, I would go with that. The BCBS plan will probably have a large deductible, so before it pays anything, you wlil need to have met the deductible.  

[Scarlett]

If the state funded program that costs $80 a month has no deductible, I would go with that. The BCBS plan will probably have a large deductible, so before it pays anything, you wlil need to have met the deductible.

Yes, BCBS has a $6000 ded per person.