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Health Care and Early Retirement (lemmy.world)
submitted 8 months ago by to c/fire@lemmy.ml
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One of the biggest factors in figuring out when early retirement is possible for me is the uncertainty of health care. I've looked into ACA plans, tried to estimate how much things will cost when life is healthy and when it isn't, and considered alternative scenarios, but haven't made myself comfortable, yet, with my options. What are you considering before you qualify for Medicare?

  • ACA and other commercial plans?
  • Spouse/partner not retiring early?
  • Participate in a country with universal/national healthcare?
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[–] [S] 3 points 8 months ago (3 children)

I think it would be great if we had our own little FIRE wiki/article with various options like this. Had heard this from someone else before, but had forgotten about it.

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago* (2 children)

    Another aspect of FIRE health insurance is how to pay for it. If you have it available and plan ahead, you can use previous HSA contributions to pay for premiums after you retire. This takes years of annual contributions without using it in that tax year, but those funds can also be invested and grow tax free (for healthcare spending including insurance premiums). More than 50% of my HSA account balance has been from investment returns (boring total stock market index fund) instead of my annual deposits.

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 8 months ago (1 child)

    Do you plan to use ACA or some other plan?

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago

    We're at least 5 years out from our earliest of early retirement, so we don't have a clear answer yet. Options we're exploring:

    • Student health insurance
    • Boutique subscription one-stop-shop heath care practice that doesn't take insurance
    • Work out a deal with current employer to work very low part-time hours to maintain employer subsidized health insurance
    • ACA plan unsubsidized
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