PSA Thursday is back! In case you’re a new listener, PSA Thursday is a weekly-ish segment in which we talk about how to handle money, work, and life in the year that is 2020.
With the uncertainty of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) looming before us, many are asking:
What will happen if the ACA is struck down by the Supreme Court? How can we plan for healthcare – now and in the future? How much will I need to save to cover healthcare in retirement? What can I do if I can’t afford the expensive premiums?
As a community of entrepreneurs and early retirees, this is a major concern.
To help us understand the healthcare landscape, Tanja Hester, author of Work Optional and the blog Our Next Life, joins us.
Tanja has extensive experience with the healthcare system. She has a history of pre-existing conditions dating back to childhood, and she has also navigated the marketplace post-retirement.
Tanja and Paula discuss:
- Common misconceptions about the ACA
- How the introduction of the ACA changed the healthcare landscape
- Healthcare stories from 10+ years ago, and how things have changed
- The 10 essential healthcare services that the ACA covers
- Why healthcare isn’t something that you can “hack” or engineer down to the penny, and why you might want to reconsider self-insuring
- How to ensure you claim your one free wellness visit (and avoid accidentally getting billed for it)
- The predictions that health policy experts are making with regards to the future of the ACA
- What we might have to plan for in terms of subsidies and annual benefits or lifetime benefit caps
- What healthcare sharing ministries are and aren’t
- Pre-existing conditions and how coverage for those may change
- The importance of your deductible and how that affects the likelihood that you seek treatment
- Strategies for planning around the uncertain future of healthcare as an (early) retiree
- How to account for rapidly rising premiums
- Research that says in less than a decade, people might spend their entire Social Security on medical expenses
- How to get a free quote for health insurance, and how to factor various expenses into your projections
- A breakdown of the marketplace plans to help you understand what you’re signing up for
- How marketplace plans might compare to your workplace plans (things aren’t always what they seem)
Resources Mentioned:
- Ournextlife.com – Tanja’s website
- Work Optional, by Tanja Hester
- @our_nextlife
- Healthcare.gov
- PolicyGenius (an Afford Anything sponsor, but a favorite we like to use)!
- affordanything.com/community
Want to hear more Tanja on the podcast?:
