I need to sign up for health insurance as my nine months are up.
I have some questions for those who have been there. There are very few VIA plans that include my primary doctor and the plans are expensive. The plans that cover out-of-network are expensive. I'm healthy, but what if I become ill and want to go to Mayo Clinic.
A couple of questions...
@3zrw+1mg6vxY1 - yep. I’m considering same strategy… but I’m also looking at converting some 401k to roth with 12% tax bracket.
I am considered a part time student and live in SE Michigan. Each university’s credit hour requirements and healthcare plan is different. Search them all and see if one meets your needs.
Cobra may not be best. Everyone’s situation is different. I declined cobra and signed up for a BCN plan on the exchange. I pay $74/mo for my wife and me, and government tax credits pay $1200/mo. I took the lump sum, so my modified AGI qualifies for the tax credits. True, the deductible is very high, but fortunately we’re both healthy. Just sharing my experience. Stay healthy friends.
COBRA is the best way to go by a mile. Don't just look at the premium but the deductible and out of pocket max. Taking your previous Ford health insurance will be less than half the total of any comparable Marketplace plan. And Marketplace dental costs an arm and leg and covers nothing. Take advantage of COBRA and get any lingering medical/dental completed while you can
@1xvn. Good suggestion on enrolling as a student to get a better BCBS healthcare group rate. If you don't mind can you share which college you enrolled in. Are you considered a part time student?
Please understand that there is Pre HRA (under 65) and HRA Medicare (over 65)
Different rules apply.
Your Pre HRA dollars do not accumulate but go away if you don't have insurance premiums to apply them to. HSA is a totally different bird and it is only for out of pocket expenses related to dental and healthcare. You can't pay for premiums from HSA dollars.
If you have 30 yrs of service or are thinking about retirement you should educate yourself on all these terms.
I got PreHRA dollars to pay for my family $33 delta dental premium from Sep to current. Lots of hoops to get this payment but it is real. Submit reimbursement and attach a copy of you delta dental ID card from the DD website and then a couple screen shots of you ford benefits payment history showing dental premiums. Pick Delta Dental not Delta Dental Cobra as we are still on the base plan till Jun1. You should be able to do one submission for 2022 CY and one for 2023 CY. Once Cobra starts you need to do each month separate. Don't get frustrated if they reject your reimbursement just keep submitting requests with the help of the via benefits customer service reps.
I doubt you can beat Cobra for the next 9 months. All the plans I looked at had near double out of pocket compared with the BCBS plans. It was like 7K per person, 14K family and 20% copay up to 18K.. And if you have any out of pocket from Jan to Jun you can stay the course as that gets reset if you jump to a different plan.
For a family of 4 we get about $1600 in PRE HRA dollars and that covers COBRA Dental $117 and Healthcare $1417.
If you were let go in Aug you can also start collecting unemployment of $362 for 20 weeks. Just recall you did not retire that sunny August morning.. Take advantage of it.
Become a student at your local university like I did. Student healthcare is inexpensive compared to Obamacare and superior to your Ford plan. My annual deductible is $500 with an out of pocket max of $3000. A doctor visit is $20 flat rate and I have BCBS PPO.
The trade off is freedom to do what you want when you want and where you want. However, my professors are flexible and work with me when I go somewhere for a week when it’s not a break. They love having students who come to learn vs students who just need to complete the class any they can (and do).
I take a reduced workload and still have time to pursue other activities a typical retire would do. A little structure to the week is nice and who care about the grades. My parents certainly don’t.
To answer your question, yes you can use VIA benefits to pay for COBRA for an additional 9 months and keep your current Ford insurance except vision.
In my case it was not any cheaper, but the insurance was a bit better. I’m going to have to go to the marketplace in October, as I’m not sure if the Ford VIA will pay for benefits from a contract house.
This is what happened to me: If you do not have any income (i.e. living off of your severance), you are eligible for reduced rates for whatever plan you choose and the subsidy comes from the state. I turned down the ford money because the plan would have cost me @800 a month minus the 500 per month from ford. I ended up paying 74 bucks a month for molina healthcare + 30 something for cr-ppy dental. I started medicare and I get 500 per month from the HRA BUT its a reimbursement, not an automatic reduction in your premiums. Buried in the VIA website is a switch that you have to set to receive automatic reimbursements. Otherwise you have to apply for it every month which seems ridiculous. The unused funds are returned to Ford.
Disclaimer: This is what happened to me after @20 calls to the VIA analysts. Before I was put in touch with someone who knew what they were doing, it was a complete mess up to that point. So you can plan on getting the run-around depending on who you talk to.