Anyone who retired early or was layed off prior to Medicare have insights into Cobra vs ACA?
Interested in the cost vs policy quality comparisons for those who have been through it.
I know based on W2 box 12DD that the SAS insurance comes out to around 31k for me with family.
Love the coverage. Low deductibles and out of pockets.
@10h I thought Obamacare was supposed to cure the whole insurance problem! We were gonna keep our doctor and all that. Instead premiums have doubled and were in a worse spot than when they pushed that cr-p. They need to reform the whole system! You don’t buy car insurance for oil changes! Don’t use health insurance for minor issues. Let doctors advertise their pricing along with their services. Let the insurance companies insure the big stuff.
Gov is shutdown today, y'all !
No worries on Obamacare marketplace costs. The dems will stand firm, hold their ground, and get those ACA subsidies reinstated lest the repubs will cause a government shutdown at the end of the month. It’s all good!
OMG, keep on working y'all if you're not financially secured with your heath care.
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/obamacare-higher-premiums-2026-affordable-care-act-rcna226637
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/09/10/aca-enhanced-subsidies-expire-obamacare-premiums-rise.html
https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/obamacare-aca-premium-increases-subsidies-expiring-rcna220079
@v5 yup. 55 and could retire now. But 3 young adults who don’t have their own health insurance yet makes me want to stay 5 more years until they are 26. Also just the desire to ensure legacy inheritance,
@tk agree on divorces and such. But we all have ups and downs in our life.
The investing part truly is that simple for anyone that works in the industry we do.
time and consistency.
it is easy to make excuses about why we didn't do that. but the reality is anyone in even halfway decent pay can do it. it doesn't take all that much if you are consistent with it for decades.
hoping to join that 55-59.5 early retirement club, but this is definitely another risk factor that could also push us to work (if we are lucky to have the choice) til closer to 65.
I know of parents who are still working instead of retiring early before 65 to help out their adult children who are in financial difficulties and debts. They may not like this but sometimes they had just to help.
@qn+1k4nxv2gs
"Not being “good” at saving/investing? All it takes is consistency and time. That simple."
Not so simple. Life is not perfect and not everyone is perfect. If you have a family of 4 kids and have to feed them all and put them all through college and your spouse stays home to take care of them while they grow up or if one of them has a major health issue (health insurance does not cover all expenses) than there isn't a whole lot of savings left for investing, especially if you don't come from a well-off family or have a very high paying job or high position. Investing also has its up and down too if you're not lucky.
"Choices have consequences. Make them as wisely as you can. Easier said than done I suppose."
Certainly easier said than done since not everyone is lucky enough to have a happy lasting marriage for life. Not because they made a bad choice initially in their partner but things can change and cr-p happens in life sometimes to good, smart, wise, hard-working people.
Consider yourselves blessed and lucky if you can retire early (any age earlier than 65) with good health and no financial worries.
Talking a more typical early retirement between 55 to 59 1/2.
30 and 40 as you refer to is extremely rare.
also depends how you define early retirement. if it's a few years before SSA defined FRA, that's very different from if we mean age 30-40 due to 7 figure salaries and winning RSU lotteries back when big data and tech giants ate the world
@qh+1k4nxv2gs Far more than a fortunate few.
People at SAS in general have relatively high paying jobs. Not relative to Meta, Google, etc. relative to the vast majority of people in the US and world.
Not being “good” at saving/investing? All it takes is consistency and time. That simple.
Divorces will certainly take one to the cleaners.
Choices have consequences. Make them as wisely as you can. Easier said than done I suppose.
'" if you are in that early retirement bucket and worked at SAS or comparable places your whole life you probably have net worths of 4-10m."
Maybe for a fortunate few with very high income.
Not everyone at SAS has/had a high paying job or is/was very good at saving and investing or had not been taken to the cleaners by a divorce or two. For those not so fortunate, early retirement is a dream.
@hc
large difference between 4 and 10, but yeah, 24k is fine in the scheme of things ... as long as you are lucky that your physiological health remains very good as well.
good luck all
@hr yes
Maybe the death of the ACA and Medicare are set for the 2nd year of the term, after tariffs and inflation soften us up.
or ACA which is affordable but not as good as SAS's coverage, unless you're 65 you can switch to Medicare
Do you seriously think that either ACA or Medicare will continue to be available and worthwhile?
Sure but if you are in that early retirement bucket and worked at SAS or comparable places your whole life you probably have net worths of 4-10m.
How big a deal is 24k a year for healthcare in your grand scheme of things.
If you haven’t been fortunate enough to work in an industry that puts you in the top 2-4% in the country or .2% in the world , net worth use, then yes bridging that Medicare gap is a serious and often undoable thing.
But yeah. SAS su-ks.
Cobra is more expensive but good because it is the same coverage as what you had at SAS but coverage only last 18 months. After that you have to switch to private insurance which is unaffordable or ACA which is affordable but not as good as SAS's coverage, unless you're 65 you can switch to Medicare.
Health care cost is a big reason most people can't afford to retire early before 65.
If you're laid off, pray you still have a working spouse whose healthcare can cover you.
If not, health care cost will eat into your savings until 65.
It's not just health care you have to think about but dental care and vision care too!
Mine is $2200 for me and my husband. After 18 months, we switched to ACA, with estimated income of 100K, we paid $1650 for the Aetna gold with discount , the coverage is not as good though, BTW, Aetna will no longer participate the market place in 2026. An agent can help you to find a plan that suits what you need.
COBRA is good for 18 months, then its over, right?
Aca costs projected to go up around 20% next year. You might consider that, don’t think you can get back cobra if you give it up.
In the same boat in a few months. Last I checked the ACA was much cheaper than COBRA but not as good...but not sure about today.
For 2024 Cobra we paid $2131 monthly, 2 adults mid to late 50s non smokers, no kids. Given the generous severance package, ACA would have been about the same price since no discount.
For 2025 we switched to ACA. We pay $860 per month with guesstimate of $60k/year income. BUT we don’t live in NC. Every state is different. Deductibles can greatly influence cost, along with out of pocket maximums. Honestly I think our options were anywhere from $5/month to $2300. Go to the website, plug in numbers and play around.
Do you have the option of being added to your spouse or partner's health insurance policy?
Cobra cost something like $2200 a month for an individual, according to someone I know who was laid off from SAS a few years ago. IDK if that helps at all.