Health Insurance Options

[swanson719]

A little background. My wife was diagnosed when she was 4 with a disease called focal-segmental-glomerial-scurlosis, FSGS for short. I know I butchered that spelling, but anyway. This disease has the long-term effect of essentially eating her kidneys for breakfast every 10 to 15 years. She is currently awaiting her second kidney transplant. She only has one right now due to her losing both when she was 9, then having a transplant when she was 15. She's currently 25 and on dialysis. We have monthly medical bills of roughly $40K, which my current insurance covers, and we have no out of pocket expenses for this aside from a $3 co-pay for her pills.

Not a bad gig, except that my insurance is Tri-Care, which is only available to active duty and retired military. There-in lies the problem. I want to get out of the military. Right now I make right around $50K and am state tax exempt, and my federal taxable income is $22K because of how our pay system works. So I only paid $1,200 in taxes all of last year. I have the option of re-enlisting this fall for a $15K one time bonus, or getting out in 2 years. I want to get out, because by then my Bachelors will be done, and I've already been offered jobs working civilian doing what I do now and making $65K to $70K a year to start. The problem is, most of these places insurance has a 10% to 20% co-pay, and a cap of $20,000 a year on those co-pays, and a personal cap of $250,000 per person per year. So $270,000 essentially. Do the math - my wifes medical is about $480,000 a year, not to mention the actual cost of her pills or when she has her transplant in another couple of years. So my question then is how in the world do I find a job that would cover her fully after the $20,000 cap? I would actually be taking a pay cut with this cap and the added taxes, but I'd love to have some stability and not worry about getting sent to a sand-box full of terrorists I have to baby-sit in some jail cell. I understand financially it would be better to stay in the army, but I just don't want to. Degree in hand - criminal justice - and ready to get out, but need a job that will cover the insurance, or a company that will. Any suggestions?

[wincrasher]

welcome to the private sector!

maybe you'll get lucky and find a job that covers 100% - those days are over as far as I know.

you may investigate other government service - the FBI, Homeland Security, etc. may have good coverage without the copay.

As far as private insurance - forget it - you can find a good plan if you've never had a health problem - otherwise you are out of luck.

I'd suggest investigating another job in the military - either stateside or maybe embassy service. You are building a retirement plus the benefits while you are working that will be hard to beat.

good luck!

[creditcardfree]

Have you thought about getting commissioned as an officer? I know it still puts you in the sand box occassionally, but the pay would increase.

Wincrasher made some good points about other government service, too. Worth looking into as you do have some time to figure it out.

[Goldy1]

THe last employer sponsered health insurance I had was blue cross ppo and it had a $500 deductable per person and it was 80/20 after that.
When I got pregnant, I Thought, oh geez, I might pay thousands on the 20% responsibility of mine, and thought about buying up to a different plan.
Then I realized it was not so bad b/c it had an OUT OF POCKET maximum of $2000 per person per year.

I am healthy and don't worry too much at this time about medical bills, but the anxiety is that when you are using employer insurance, they tend to change it yearly. I would say my insurance type, co pays, and coverages changed every year for the past few years. It got to the point where I didn't even get into reading the insurance manual other than browsing it anymore b/c I knew it was "temporary"
The jobs shop around a lot due to increasing rates. can't blame them.

[terces]

How long have you been in the military? I agree if you can bear down and get to retirement it has enormous bene's. We're retired military and I can't shout enough how glad I am we have tricare. Definitely check out the fed jobs.

[swanson719]

Been in a little over three years. My wife keeps harping on me to drop my OCS packet - which I will if I re-up. You can take the re-up bonus and a commission if you play your cards right. Anyone know much about HSA's and how they work? I heard Dave Ramsey talking about it on his show today.

[zetta]

HSA (health savings account) won't do you much good in your situation. They're good if you're young and healthy and can build up a good chunck of savings over several years of having minimal health expenditures. In your case, you'd likely end us spending more each year than you are even allowed to contribute.

[jIM_Ohio]

Look for government work- I used to contract with the navy (for example) and most of the government workers were former Navy officers or enlisted men. We did work on submarine sound signatures.

If you are army, think about the equipment you use, and which branch of the government tests or maintains the equipment standards- get a job there.

You may want to look at an HDHP policy and your out of pocket costs might get capped at 11k and be tax free thru an HSA.

Or move to Canada?

[Goldy1]

move to Canada? lol. It's just down the street from me(I could be in Canada in just over an hour's time from my Michigan suburb)

I think it takes years to get citizenship there, bu tnot sure. Up and down our roads are Canadian people shopping(you see the Windsor plates)
They pay a lot of tax on what they buy to subsidize that healthcare, and I have heard goods cost more there also so they love to shop in Michigan. (our sales tax is 6%)
IT used to be great going to Canada for dinner and for travel when our dollar was exchanging one dollar Canadan for 70 cents US years ago(not that I went often)

[terces]

We have several friends who moved to US from Canada. One of their biggest complaints besides taxes was the health care system there.

Can you transfer to the Coast Guard? You'd be stateside for sure. lol

[tripods68]

This is a tough one...but even if you are civilian government workers like my step dad who works for Postal Services you are still going to pay about 10%of copayment, unless you work for UPS. They pay for all their employees 100% coverage, no copayment.

Have you thought about completing 20 year active duty so you'll have lifetime Tricare benefits?

[Goldy1]

AGain, I thought insurances had caps for out of pocket fees. Mine always have. I know they can have lifetime limits too. A coworker had a son with a serious heart defect, and she commented about him possibly exceeding the one million dollar lifetime spending allowed on him.

I don't know anything about Canadian healthcare. Everyone comments on "the wait" over there for certain things, but I would rather wait than pay out of pocket or be scared about losing insurance. I think heathcare is easy to take for granted, but I can see it's not being taken for granted as much these days which is good.
I just wish more part time jobs offered it.

[creditcardfree]

Would it hurt to call an agent...just to give you some numbers and information? Just be upfront about wife's condition and your current status.

[creditcardfree]

Oh, I just realized you could join the Army Reserves and sign up for Tricare Reserve Select. It is explained here.

I'm not sure what the caps are. There are premiums and copays, but they are still pretty good. Good luck!