Hi,

Health insurance was our biggest barrier to early retirement. We retired at 50 (wife and I are same age) but we probably would have retired sooner if not for the huge premiums. Between us it's about 1800/month with a big deductible, no vision or dental. Essentially it is medical catastrophe insurance and we pay pretty much all our medical bills out of pocket. It sometimes feels like government sponsored extortion. We are healthy and neither of us have filed any claims to speak of in our lifetimes.

Not to get political but it would be nice if we could adopt the universal health care model that most other developed nations follow like our neighbors to the north. Anywho...

We just planned it into our retirement budget. My wife and I are HS sweethearts and our retirement planning begun at a very young age with lot's of scrimping saving and investing. For us we need to bridge that gap between now and when we should get social security and Medicare benefits along with the formal retirement from our working years.

I am not aware of any cheap alternatives other than some people simply pay the penalty for not having insurance and roll the dice on medical costs. I have heard of some faith based health care sharing but never really looked into it. Might be something there though!

Hope you find a way to hit the road soon!

We go through Washington Health care finder in Washington state they give subsidies, they go by your annual income otherwise we couldn't afford it. when you signup with them they give you a choice of plans to pick from. some of the plans start out you paying nothing (but with a very high deductable )on up.one thing you have to watch out for is they go off your last years taxes so that will effect what you pay .
I'm not sure what state your in but you may want to check with them.

Greg, be careful what you wish for. A universal system like Canada’s only serves to give the same low bar of medical care to everybody. Excellent care is hard to find with universal coverage and lines for specialized treatment are long. That’s why so many Canadians come down to the states for cancer treatment.

Dunno about you but I’m a big believer in the free market system. I honestly think you are in the sweet spot for insurance...a catastrophic plan. You get to shop and select the doctors you want and you negotiate the price you pay, while the downside of a catastrophic medical misadventure is covered by insurance.

We are in our third year using Christian Healthcare Ministries. We chose the highest plan, Gold, and also added Brothers Keeper, similar to a catastrophic plan. We each pay $172 per month and $40 (this may fluctuate slightly) per quarter and responsible for the first $500 when having to visit a doctor. We have just made our first claim so don’t have first hand knowledge on the whole process of reimbursement except CHM was excellent to work with. We are both in our lower 60s so not yet ready for Medicare. This was recommended by a friend and we have been extremely pleased.
https://www.chministries.org/

I used CHM some years ago between on a career break. Although I never had a claim with them, they were great to work with and have a great reputation. This is a faith based organization and there are some requirements. Good luck with your search.

I think for essential services we should all be receiving the same quality. Services like Fire, Police, K-12 education and medical should be basic citizenship services. I am not any more special or deserving the anyone else to receive superior healthcare. While inequities are sure to exist we should be striving to treat all our citizens with decent basic services including healthcare. Just my 2c.

Update. It looks like we will be signing up with Zion Health Share. They don't require any specific religious affiliations and work with any doctor at any facility in any state. Seems great for FT travelers.

Cost is WAY less at $515/month for both of us with essentially a 1000/incident deductible after 3 incidents (god forbid) they cover 100%.

It will be nice saving almost 1300/month. This was a major budget consideration for us..

https://zionhealth.org

Just some food for thought: We retired at 54, well before Medicare & SS. Over the next 11 years we lived in or extensively visited 53 countries and island nations (we are sailors). No hotels, no coach tours, just living with the locals wherever we anchored or berthed. We found basic health care services were provided virtually everywhere, whether in North Africa, small Caribbean island nations or far away in places like the Galapagos, the Cooks, Samoas or French Polynesia. And that applied to foreigners like us (sometimes for a fee), not just the locals, because it was considered a basic human right. It's hard for me to consider the U.S. a first world nation when this same level of basic medical care - I'm not referring to sophisticated treatments for cancer, heart disease and such - isn't universally available here.

The system that your neighbors to the north isn't great. Yes our premiums don't exist. But the basic system doesn't cover dental ot vision. Those have to be bought thru third party carriers . Being retired and covered by my company retirement medical . I pay $145 a month to cover the extras. I'm only allowed $300 a year for misc like dental. Vision isn't covered at all. Prescriptions aren't covered under under basic or provincial plans. We also have a shortage of doctors. In our city (of 70000) about 40% of people don't have a regular doctor. They depend on the emergency department or walk in clinics.
Waits to see specialists can be up to 12 months. Then if the specialist recommends surgery . It could be another years wait. Certain health issue like cancer are done quickly. Certain routine procedures(in the US) aren't done in Canada. I'm only telling you what the situation is in British Columbia.

While I don’t intend to argue one country over another with regard to healthcare, here is a link to some explanation. There are many more links doing comparisons as well. The important thing to recognize is that it’s impossible to compare apples to apples. There are many different aspects which must be taken into account to do a concrete comparison rather than assumptions or misguided heresy. As well, depending which country one is from, there is a sense of loyalty and pride towards how one’s own country operates.
https://www.businessinsider.com/american-misconceptions-about-canadian-healthcare-2019-11?amp