I get basically free health insurance provided by my company, but I have to pay the full cost for my wife. It had been pretty reasonable, but is starting to become much less so. I figure it might be worth it for me to consider getting her own private insurance on her own, but I've never shopped for it before. My first question is about enrollment periods. Our current insurance is active until October 1st. If I were interested in healthcare.gov, their enrollment is open in December. Can I enroll her another year with my company until December, then "switch" to a different plan a couple months from now? I know you need a lifechanging event to enroll in a policy in the middle of the year. Is it the same for disenrolling? Can I create an HSA on my own? I feel like it's tied to certain insurance policies, but I can't figure out why it would be. A quick google search gave a ton of options that all looked shady as hell. Does anyone have any recommendations of what companies to stay away from/go towards?
Unless your company is unreasonable you will be able to drop her coverage once she is enrolled in the marketplace. I will say every once in awhile the paperwork is not processed in a timely manner and sometimes you end up continuing to pay a premium because they need 3 months notification prior determination of policy. Good question on the FSA. I would talk to my accountant if I were you to see if there are any options. I expect that you will be disheartened by what you find on the healthcare exchange marketplace. Usually employers can get better deals for the benefits packages that they offer. Most insurances are losing money in the healthcare marketplace and the premiums are going up as a result. Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk
HSA is different than an FSA. HSA is specifically offered for employees who are enrolled in a high deductible health plan. I don't know what the criteria for high deductible is. HSA's roll over year to year. With an HSA you can only use the cash available in the account. At the end of the plan the balance remains and the account continues to grow with employee and or employer contributions. The idea is that if you have a bad year medically you have an account that will help offset the cost of your deductible. FSA's are use it or loose it. With an FSA you can use the entire annual contribution on day 1 which is a risk to the employer. Go get Lasik a day after the plan year starts and use you're entire FSA contribution to pay for it. Quit the next day and you don't owe the employer a cent for the FSA. On the flip side if you contribute the max allowed and don't spend any of it then you loose the balance at the end of the year / grace period. Employee and Employer both have risk with the FSA and they're seen as offsetting each other. You'd need to change to EE only coverage during OE. You don't have to go through HealthCare.gov to get your spouse covered. You can go to any insurance carrier and get a quote from them. Rates should be pretty much in line with ACA rates. The only benefit for ACA plans would be based on credits due to income levels. I believe most plans are "community rated" meaning they base the risk on the community at large and not on the individual. This is a big thing since preexisting condition limits were removed. Life event wise here's what you would probably fall into: You may qualify for a Special Enrollment Period if you lose qualifying health coverage you had through a parent, spouse, or other family member. This might happen if: You turn 26 (or the maximum dependent age allowed in your state) and can no longer be on a parent’s health plan. You lose job-based health coverage through a family member’s employer because that family member loses health coverage or coverage for dependents. You lose health coverage through a spouse due to a divorce or legal separation. You lose health coverage due to the death of a family member. You lose health coverage through a parent or guardian because you’re no longer a dependent.
https://mychristiancare.org/medi-share https://www.samaritanministries.org/membership-levels#descriptions I've heard good things about both of these plans.
RE: HSAs, you can sign up for an HSA with any bank offering the service. If you really dislike your employer's HSA administrator, you can rollover funds from one HSA account to another. Your contributions are pre-tax, up to a certain limit, which if setup by your employer, you can do without waiting for a refund at the end of the tax year. However, if you want to contribute post-tax, you can draw from any of your bank accounts, and deduct the amount from your taxable income at tax time. You are only eligible for pre-tax contributions if you are enrolled in an HDHP, which is why each plan administrator will send you enrollment verification to go with your tax docs each year in case you get audited. You can hold onto the money forever, people have started using them as places to dump additional pre-tax money once they max out their annual IRA/401k/403b contributions. With certain banks, you can dump the money into mutual funds as well. You can use the funds for medical expenses, prescriptions, etc., but another benefit is once you reach 65 years old, you can also leverage the funds like a retirement account. Normally for non-medical expenses, there's a 20% penalty for withdrawing before age 65, however after there, is no penalty, but is considered taxable income.
healthcare.gov did nothing but spam the hell out of my e-mail and cell phone, when I was self-employed. I’m surprised your plan through your employer doesn’t offer a family plan of some sort. I’d start by asking a CSR, with your current insurance company, about talking to a plan specialist and see what they have to offer for private plans. Several self-employed people I know use Health Alliance. My employer pays nearly 100% of my insurances, but, there are family plan options at an additional premium. Likewise, employees have two different plans to choose from and I chose the HSA/$5K deductible option, over a normal plan, because I pay nothing for the medical part of the plan, my voluntary contributions meet the deductible amount in ~15mos, I wouldn’t normally frequent doctors, and the money coming out of my check is MY money, going to MY account.
