Pre 65 Medical Expenses/Insurance Coverage

One of my major gripes is the continuing annual cost increase of Medical Insurance coverage for the year's prior to reaching Medicare.

I was a salary employee for my entire career in aerospace. For over 20 years, my company covered Medical for the time period from retirement until you reached Medicare. This usually required you to have a combined total of 85 points in age plus years of service, or be over 50 with 30+ years of service. Then, they decided it was too expensive, and it was dropped....no coverage for the period between 55 and 65.

They gave us COBRA, which lasted for 18 months in my case. Then I had to go out and buy my own Medical Insurance, which is deducted monthly from my pension. I retired at 58. I'm now 62, soon to be 63. This coming year, starting in Jan. 2007, for the So. CA region, my monthly medical premimum went up over $125 a month to about $535. A little over 5 years ago I was paying about $185 a month. In other words, in 5 years, my medical has increased 3X! This is for the less expensive HMO. For PPO coverage, my monthly premimum would be over $800 a month.

In my case, my monthly retirement is locked. I get no cost of living. The amount I get is fixed for as long as I live. Fair? No, but I try to look at the glass as half full.

One of the keys to existence in retirement is money management. You need to be aware of this when you choose a final place to live out your retirement years. During our last annual retirement party (usually held in Laughlin, NV in April) my ex-Manager told me he had moved to a Southern state where there was no HMO. He lived in a small town of about 4,000. His Medical Insurance premimum for he and his wife was $2,000 a month!

I don't know about you, but many of the medical personnel in my plan have English as a 2nd language...boy, are they hard to understand!

How about you folks? How do you hold down medical expenses as seniors?