plantoretire;627085Husband and I are in early 40's. I am currently planning to work for another 10 years if I can and I usually carry insurance as husband is self-employed.
Just wondering what are the options once we retire and plan to split time between India and US. It will be a while before Medicare kicks in.
Do we need to budget some money in our HSA accounts to cover healthcare expenses for later on?
With all friends in the same age group, feels like no one has a good idea how things work.
I know someone in Bay Area similar to your profile. Husband in mid-50s works as a contractor, so no employer insurance. Wife works as a teacher and gets 50% premium reimbursed by school. She is working for the insurance. They pay $2400 per month for four and $1200 out of pocket after school coverage. Husband has 10+ years to go before medicare. He is worried what if the school does a cut back and wife loses her job. Their kids are still in college and HS, so r2i is ruled out. Employer paid insurance is the best with min out of pocket expense.
Don't listen to cmk786, he has govt paid insurance. If you retire from govt or military then you don't have to worry.
For folks in private sector it is a nightmare to fork out $2K per month once you are in 50s. Obamacare is a fraud. I want Trump to close it down. When I tried to buy insurance through the exchange, I found the difference between Obamacare and e-Healthinsurance (private) was hardly $10 per month. Affordable care in USA, my left foot! Healthcare can never be affordable in US since the underlying hospital, doctors and the system is the same with malpractice insurance and hordes of lawyers waiting to pounce on. Unless US govt starts running hospital system like NHS, forget about affordable medical care for middle class. Just pray you do not get rich man's disease like heart attack, cancer etc.
Have enough money saved up to budget $2K per month plus any out of pocket expense if you get into a hospital. Otherwise work till 65, get employer coverage and switch over to medicare after that. Even medicare covers only 80%. If you have a surgery and bill comes to $100K, you have to shell out $20K. For that money+copay+deductible you can get treatment in a nice hospital in India.
There are tonnes of articles in US newspaper how 70+ year old white Americans are thinking of moving to India as they are unable to meet the bills from their savings and SS payment. You need at least $2-$4M saved up if you want to retire in USA and able to meet hospital bills for yourself and spouse. It is not just medical bills, you have to fund LT care and nursing bill also which is a separate expense item.
Splitting time between US/India is the option after 65 and if you enroll into medicare. Remember with medicare you have to pay monthly premium ranging from $100-200 for all the A-Z Plan. Then you have the problem certain doctors do not accept medicare patients. I see Kaiser in BA survives on oldies with medicare.
Life in America is good as long as you have good company paid insurance and you are healthy. There are lot of horror stories with treatment for older people. I have another friend in Bay Area who is 70+. Came to US in the 1980s. One day the pharmacy bumped up the out of pocket expense of his daily medicine from $90 to $300. When he protested, the pharmacist asked him to buy 10 pills instead of 30. Same person has diabetes and certain other old age illness. I have seen the bills for the diagnosis and it is high. They have not even reached the treatment stage. He is quite depressed.
For old age medical treatment India wins hands down. You save INR 25L and set it aside in FD. That should take care or use the SS payment for hospital bills. You are not going to be in the hospital every month. You do not have to worry about LT care or nursing as they are quite affordable. For the insurance premium and copay in US, you can pay for those services outright and still left with some INR for chai/samosa.