My wife and I are planning on retireing next year and might move to Mckinney Texas. Im a Ca leo with 23 years on. So far, I cant find affordable health care in TX for us (no kids). We will be 49.

If I stay in CA (hell no) I can keep my Kaiser HMO wich mostly covers me but not my wife. I looked at Tezas' one exchange and a bronze plan was 1500 a month for a plan with an absrdly high deductable.

So Texans, what do you use for insurance?

Thanks
Jaycat

My Moms a Texan so it would be like coming home!

Blue Cross Blue Shield, but they're a ripoff outfit too. Our monthly bill is right at $2000 for my wife and I. 60 years old, no real health problems.

Jaycat congrats on the future move. I live in Mckinney, in the historic district. It’s a good place to live just high property taxes. Healthcare is like any other place if you have to rely on buying your own. It’s a total racket. I’m lucky my company pays all of mine, but have buddies that are self employed and I hear nothing but horror stories for pricing.

Blue cross & Bluesheild is the big dog in Texas. Wish you luck in your search. And look me up when you get to Texas.

Might you consider a new job just for the health insurance? This is becoming more prevalent, and it sucks.

Nice area, I'm a little north of it, we used to live there and really enjoyed it. I second the working for healthcare. Have you thought about still working LE or are you done?

Some of the smaller depts do laterals and seem to pay decently. The other option might be an ISD police position, they tend to be pretty low key. There is also a brand new costco going in off of 380 in mckinney and I hear they are great to work part time for as there medical covers part time employees. Good luck on the move.

I live in Dallas, just a bit south of McKinney. Would welcome good folks escaping California (as long as they aren't Liberal). I can't help you with Health Insurance ideas--I'm retired USAF and have their insurance.

flashguy

Insurance flat out SUCKS and it’s a racket as far as I’m concerned. My wife is with Fort Worth ISD. They take over $1200 of her check every month to cover us and our daughter. I f’ing hate it, and it’s horrible coverage.

Perhaps you might consider taking a college class or two in your spare time. Low cost insurance for students

Would that student insurance work for adult education classes, too? Some of those can be interesting.

flashguy

quote:

Originally posted by Jaycat:
My wife and I are planning on retiring next year and might move to Mckinney Texas. Im a Ca leo with 23 years on.
So far, I cant find affordable health care in TX for us (no kids). We will be 49.

I am currently North of McKinney, Texas. I have not yet changed my residence to Texas, but I fled Washington due to the healthcare / insurance mess there. My "options" for 2018 were only one insurance company which my current doctors do not accept. (Washington tries to operate a health insurance exchange. Texas does not.)

Brief OT but which might be relevant: When I was getting my hair cut, I was told that Californians were moving to Plano, McKinney, and Frisco and battling with cash offers on Texas houses financed by selling their expensive homes in California. In response, those Texans are moving North to less populated and less expensive areas. (I explained that Californians are moving to Washington too. My new neighbors there worship "tree spirits." Well, okay.)

quote:

If I stay in CA (hell no) I can keep my Kaiser HMO wich mostly covers me but not my wife. I looked at Texas' one exchange and a bronze plan was 1500 a month for a plan with an absurdly high deductable.

I don't know where you looked, but healthcare.gov has previews for 2018 plans here https://www.healthcare.gov/see-plans/ If you qualify for subsidies, you want a silver plan, not a bronze or gold plan. I learned this is in late 2014 after buying a gold plan, but healthcare.gov (whose website seems to actually work) emphasizes that you should look at silver plans. If your income is low enough to qualify for subsidies, I just learned that, for some reason, my tax subsidies here will be nearly twice as much than they would be in Collin County. (That's very good, if true.) So if you do qualify for tax subsidies, you might want to consider moving to a different area. We'll know more on Nov. 1, when healthcare.gov opens for enrollment.

quote:

So Texans, what do you use for insurance?

As mentioned, Blue Cross and Blue Shield has dominated Texas health insurance, certainly for the last 30 years or more. I did notice some other insurance being offered in Collin County, but based upon my experiences in Washington, I would stick with BCBS or else your providers might go out of network.

Also, if you do not qualify for tax subsidies, there's probably no reason to use healthcare.gov. Just buy your insurance from BCBS directly. That was the case with Washington's insurance exchange.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: rh,

Can you cobra off your current plan?

COBRA is for temporary coverage.

After simple complete research, I learned that in Texas, for private insurance, your options are a BCBS HMO. While that is better than my options of a BCBS EPO in Washington, you might qualify to buy a PPO plan out of Oklahoma which will grant you PPO privileges in Texas, Washington, and Oklahoma.

You do not need to be a resident of Oklahoma to purchase a PPO plan. You just must be a resident of any state with interest in living in Oklahoma. As I have real estate interests with domiciles in Texas, Oklahoma, and Washington, I went with Oklahoma BCBS PPO plan even though it is more expensive than the HMO and EPO options since it allows me access to useful medical facilities.

ETA: Not needing to be a resident of Oklahoma to buy insurance from Oklahoma is not specific to Oklahoma. We're still finding out what is in Obamacare.

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Obamacare is “the craziest thing in the world.” - Bill Clinton

This message has been edited. Last edited by: rh,

I'm an LEO and our agency is with United Healthcare. How do their rates compare to BCBS when you line them up side-by-side?

BCBS rates vary depending upon the county you live in, your age, and smoking status. You can look them up here https://www.bcbstx.com/shop-plans-and-products , but you might be shocked at their prices. It is probably best to keep your employer's insurance.

But there is no way to compare United Healthcare's prices to BCBS since a BCBS HMO plan is the only private insurance for sale in Texas.