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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?
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?
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