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Barry A.
Select Nomad
Posts: 10007
Registered: 11-30-2003
Location: Redding, Northern CA
Member Is Offline
Mood: optimistic
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Not sure what you mean, Norte------
As a Federal Employee I am retired under the old FERS retirement plan. And no, my health insurance is NOT free------I pay about $400 a month for my
wife and myself for Fed. Govt. Employee Health Insurance.
Yes, Part B is optional, but I chose to take it, and it costs me and my wife an additional $400 a month, for a total of about $800 roughly a month for
both of us.
When I do the math, this is the best I can do on Health Insurance.
Barry
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C-Urchin
Nomad
Posts: 234
Registered: 12-17-2008
Location: La Paz
Member Is Offline
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An Expat friend who lives in La Paz referred me to AXA, international health insurance from England. If you exclude the US, Canada and Europe it is
very cheap and first class, you can adjust your coverage as your needs change. If you go back to the US for example it costs the same as having a US
policy with the usual shysters.
Check it out, think global.
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norte
Super Nomad
Posts: 1163
Registered: 10-8-2008
Member Is Offline
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WOW. I like you people who blast big government (see your past posts with DK) all the while on the public dole. your gobment retirement is so much
that you can afford the optional 400 after the gobment gives you almost free Blue Cross (see what it would be if you had to pay like me). No wonder
you can criticize the government (including Mexico) when you got yours already at my expense. You probablly don't travel down there anyway. Ahhh
need to go back to work
| Quote: | Originally posted by Barry A.
Not sure what you mean, Norte------
As a Federal Employee I am retired under the old FERS retirement plan. And no, my health insurance is NOT free------I pay about $400 a month for my
wife and myself for Fed. Govt. Employee Health Insurance.
Yes, Part B is optional, but I chose to take it, and it costs me and my wife an additional $400 a month, for a total of about $800 roughly a month for
both of us.
When I do the math, this is the best I can do on Health Insurance.
Barry |
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rts551
Elite Nomad
Posts: 6699
Registered: 9-5-2003
Member Is Offline
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Someone had a bad day!
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Barry A.
Select Nomad
Posts: 10007
Registered: 11-30-2003
Location: Redding, Northern CA
Member Is Offline
Mood: optimistic
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| Quote: | Originally posted by norte
WOW. I like you people who blast big government (see your past posts with DK) all the while on the public dole. your gobment retirement is so much
that you can afford the optional 400 after the gobment gives you almost free Blue Cross (see what it would be if you had to pay like me). No wonder
you can criticize the government (including Mexico) when you got yours already at my expense. You probablly don't travel down there anyway. Ahhh
need to go back to work
| Quote: | Originally posted by Barry A.
Not sure what you mean, Norte------
As a Federal Employee I am retired under the old FERS retirement plan. And no, my health insurance is NOT free------I pay about $400 a month for my
wife and myself for Fed. Govt. Employee Health Insurance.
Yes, Part B is optional, but I chose to take it, and it costs me and my wife an additional $400 a month, for a total of about $800 roughly a month for
both of us.
When I do the math, this is the best I can do on Health Insurance.
Barry |
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-------my "gobment retirement" is take home $1600 a month, and I get NO social Security-----my ex-wife does get $500 of that retirement tho, I admit,
and the $1600 is what is left over for me and my second wife. She (my present wife) does gets an addiltional $423 SS a month, for a grand total of
slightly over $2000 a month.
75% of my income comes from my stock investments which I have been building up for over 40 years.
You just do what you have to do. 
Life is good!!! 
Barry
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mtgoat666
Select Nomad
Posts: 18388
Registered: 9-16-2006
Location: San Diego
Member Is Offline
Mood: Hot n spicy
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that's why we need health insurance reform, and why we need a govt option for individual policies and policies for aged. current health insurance
system only works adequately for the young healthy individual policy holder or the group policy holder (groups is you corporate working stiffs).
yes we can!
| Quote: | Originally posted by oladulce
If you're looking forward to retirement in the near future and will be switching from group health insurance and applying for an individual policy,
I'd like to pass along some hard-earned advice.
As you're counting down the days during your last 6-12 months on the job:
1. DO NOT visit the chiropractor so you'll be in the best possible shape for all the surfing and paddling you'll be doing in your
leisure time.
2. DO NOT go in for the Surfer's ear surgery you've been putting off.
3. DO NOT see a doctor for little tune-ups before your move to Mexico and don't fill any prescriptions unless you absolutely need
them (or at least don't claim it on your insurance)
I just submitted the 4th application for an individual health insurance policy after being denied by 3 companies for reasons mentioned above (along
with the 1st company that refused to cover any future Cancer because I had cancer 25 years ago????).
Husband "Wooo" finally got accepted by Blue Cross on attempt #3 so at least we got him covered.
I tried Blue Shield 2 weeks ago and have been expecting an answer any time but learned that they lost my app. so I had to start all over and reapply.
I don't have a very good feeling about BS and I spent all day completing another online application for company #5.
We have no chronic, major, or minor medical conditions and are not on medication and we cluelessly thought insurance companies would be clambering to
sign us up.
Some companies want to know the past 10 yrs of your major medical history and some only go back 5 yrs for any big stuff. But all the applications I've
filled out have asked for the details of the past 2 years so I'd highly recommend that you and your family start backing off your insurance
usage during your last couple of years before leaving your group plan.
It's stressful and time consuming dealing with this stuff we've been working on getting coverage for 2 months. The house sold and we're down to just 3
more days here so we'll be living in our camper somewhere near our storage unit til we get it worked out. Then we can start hauling things South.
It never occurred to me that using our insurance would come back to bite us in the butt and I hope the message can help someone else.
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[Edited on 12-16-2009 by mtgoat666]
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BigWooo
Senior Nomad
Posts: 579
Registered: 1-2-2007
Member Is Offline
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| Quote: | Originally posted by mtgoat666
that's why we need health insurance reform, and why we need a govt option for individual policies and policies for aged. current health insurance
system only works adequately for the young healthy individual policy holder or the group policy holder (groups is you corporate working stiffs).
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I agree. For my entire working life I've had group health insurance and couldn't understand why I kept reading about how health insurance is so
screwed up. Everyone I knew had great insurance, what's the problem? Now that I'm retired, not covered by group insurance anymore, and too young for
medicare, I see just how messed up our health care system is. If you're not 20 with a spotless record, it's nearly impossible to get insurance. I'm
a retired firefighter and had a fairly serious on the job injury a few years ago (recovered), but now it's coming back to haunt me. After being
rejected by two companies, I just had a long stressful interview with a Blue Cross underwriting doctor about my work injuries, and at my insistence
that I'm "normal" they finally accepted me.
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BigWooo
Senior Nomad
Posts: 579
Registered: 1-2-2007
Member Is Offline
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Ok I just realized something...it's 2:00 am, I'm wide awake, can't sleep and reading Bajanomad. How "Normal" can I really be? 
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DianaT
Select Nomad
Posts: 10020
Registered: 12-17-2004
Member Is Offline
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| Quote: | Originally posted by BigWooo
| Quote: | Originally posted by mtgoat666
that's why we need health insurance reform, and why we need a govt option for individual policies and policies for aged. current health insurance
system only works adequately for the young healthy individual policy holder or the group policy holder (groups is you corporate working stiffs).
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I agree. For my entire working life I've had group health insurance and couldn't understand why I kept reading about how health insurance is so
screwed up. Everyone I knew had great insurance, what's the problem? Now that I'm retired, not covered by group insurance anymore, and too young for
medicare, I see just how messed up our health care system is. If you're not 20 with a spotless record, it's nearly impossible to get insurance. I'm
a retired firefighter and had a fairly serious on the job injury a few years ago (recovered), but now it's coming back to haunt me. After being
rejected by two companies, I just had a long stressful interview with a Blue Cross underwriting doctor about my work injuries, and at my insistence
that I'm "normal" they finally accepted me. |
We are among the lucky who have very good insurance in retirement---and now with one of us, it is the supplemental to go with Medicare----costs us
nothing except some co-pays and co-pays on meds. Without, we could not afford our medication.
We have it because of a strong union---one of the many good things about strong unions. As in the other civilized countries, health care, like police
protection and fire protection, should be a right.
There were times when both of us were self-employed and went without insurance because of the expense. That should not happen to anyone!
However, the way the current so called health reform bill is going, it stinks---no more than a boom for the Health Insurance Companies, whose CEOs
manage to take about 30% of the maga-profits for their own benefits. Without at least a strong public option, it is not reform. But the
government is still controlled by the large corporations.
IMHO, what is happening to Oladulce and Big Woo is just flat wrong, and it is not uncommon.
It is time for REAL reform and for those who scream about big government, do they also want to do away with Social Security, Medi-care, the Military,
Police and Fire Protection, on and on and privatize everything? Maybe Blackwater could run all of these things.
I wish the two of you good luck----
Diane
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k-rico
Super Nomad
Posts: 2079
Registered: 7-10-2008
Location: Playas de Tijuana
Member Is Offline
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Just was reading about the Cleveland Clinic, one of the best. It employs 2000 doctors (salaried not fee for service BTW) AND 1200 full time people to
handle the insurance paperwork.
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cbuzzetti
Nomad
Posts: 193
Registered: 5-22-2006
Location: Atascadero, Ca
Member Is Offline
Mood: Lookin for a vacation
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Here is something I learned yesterday from my chiropractor.
Medicare is really handled by a company under the Blue Cross banner. Every 4 years it goes out to bid to see what insurance co. will take over
Medicare. The Govt. pays the insurance co to handle paying claims and negociating with drs. Apparently there is a fixed payout for certain procedures
for Medicare. The go-between (currently Blue Cross) gets to keep the difference between what they can pay the dr., hospital etc and what the Govt pays
them. Sucks don't it? 
So if we expand Medicare or a public option guess who will really be handling it for us?
The good news is that Blue Cross is probably more capable of handling this than the Govt.
BajaBuzz
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olallabay
Newbie
Posts: 4
Registered: 11-24-2009
Member Is Offline
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You'll want to check the rules in the state your living in with the appropriate regulatory department (in Washington it's the State Insurance
Commissioner) about COBRA but that may be the way to go.
In Washington if you sign up for COBRA and stick with it for the whole 18 months, the state requires that insurance companys take you on WITHOUT
requiring a questionaire about past conditions. We both have heart problems that would have prevented us from getting health insurance, but by going
this route we got the coverage we needed. I believe this is a part of the national COBRA law so it probably applies to you.
For obvious reasons the insurance companies your dealing with will not tell you about this provision.
Good luck
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k-rico
Super Nomad
Posts: 2079
Registered: 7-10-2008
Location: Playas de Tijuana
Member Is Offline
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| Quote: | Originally posted by olallabay
You'll want to check the rules in the state your living in with the appropriate regulatory department (in Washington it's the State Insurance
Commissioner) about COBRA but that may be the way to go.
In Washington if you sign up for COBRA and stick with it for the whole 18 months, the state requires that insurance companys take you on WITHOUT
requiring a questionaire about past conditions. We both have heart problems that would have prevented us from getting health insurance, but by going
this route we got the coverage we needed. I believe this is a part of the national COBRA law so it probably applies to you.
For obvious reasons the insurance companies your dealing with will not tell you about this provision.
Good luck |
Didn't apply to me in CA. One Friday my COBRA with Aetna ran out, the following Monday they said I would need to re-apply, I did, and they said no.
But yes, the rules differ from state to state as do the premiums for the same coverage, in some cases dramatically. It appears to me that insurance
premiums aren't based upon cost and fair underwriting, they're more a function of the maximum price they can charge and get enough customers to be
sure of handsome profits.
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oladulce
Super Nomad
Posts: 1625
Registered: 5-30-2005
Location: bcs
Member Is Offline
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Update
On Christmas eve I received acceptance letters from Blue Shield (CA) and Aetna! Similar high deductible PPO coverages.
What was the secret to finally getting health insurance? I'm not positive, but I can say that my applications to company's #4 and #5 were alot less
wordy in the "past medical history" sections, as advised by the insurance broker.
So my advice to anyone who is anticipating applying for individual medical insurance:
1. Consider applying through a good broker who will proofread and review your application before you submit it. We did use a broker for
insurance attempt #1 (Blue Shield of South Dakota), but this broker offered no suggestions or advice at all. We learned later that a good
broker will assist you with your application.
2. Try to avoid being denied by an insurance company because all subsequent companies will ask "have you ever been denied insurance?".
3. Most important tip: Back off on your insurance claims at least one year before any anticipated change in your status from group to individual
coverage. Most applications ask for your most recent 5 years of medical history, and some go back 10 years. But all definitely ask for doctor or
practitioner visits over the past 1 year. Don't do as I did and wait for your final year of employment to get your tune-ups.
Yesterday I was standing on a 6 ft wall hosing off our camper cover, not an unusual-type thing for me to do, but probably not typical 52 yr old female
behavior.
BigWooo- "hey be careful up there".
me- "Dude, I've got medical insurance- yipee!"
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Debra
Super Nomad
Posts: 2101
Registered: 10-31-2002
Location: Port Orchard Wa./Bahia de Los Angeles BC
Member Is Offline
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Norte............"Goverment dole person?"
We are in the same position as Barry (old FERS) and many, if not most people choose civil service jobs, over MUCH better paying jobs in the private
sector for supposedly a more secure retirement benifits and as with Barry after we pay our med ins ($368.68) we are left with about $1700 per month to
live on, this is after almost 30 yrs. of service. Soooooooooo, at 66yrs. old my husband still has to work, and has since 1995 when he retired, so we
can get the $300 something "Dole" SS money.
Norte, I have to ask, would you like to see a 90 something little old lady flipping burgers? Sheesh!
Mean people suck!
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