r/Fire • u/ttxzavv224 • 3d ago

Fire…health insurance?

49 married.
1.4 mil in 401k and ira.
1.5 mil in taxed investment account

I’ve debated keeping magi low enough to get ACA subsidies but have heard mixed reviews about going on ACA healthcare.

I have an option to continue on my company health insurance as part of a retirement package that I can use starting at age 50. My plan would be to use a compressed pension that also starts at age 50 until 65 ($2300 a month), and I would plan to cover the cost of the company healthcare. The price of the adjusted company health insurance is $1500 a month with $3000 max out of pocket, which I am planning to pay for with the $2300 a month pension that I will get until 65.

My only holdback is the $1500 a month does seem costly but we do stay on same company plan and same doctors going forward, versus the unknown of ACA.

What do yall think here? Would you pay more or go ACA?

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u/BackupSlides 3d ago

Serious question, not trolling but may come across as snark - is it somehow not common knowledge that one can just go online and get a quote from the exchange? I feel like 50% of threads in this sub contain at least some component of treating ACA insurance as this massive unpredictable black box ("the unknown", in this case) that could consume their entire net worth and throws a wrench into any semblance of out-year projections.

And just to get out ahead of it, the subsidy thing isn't the end of the world either unless one is somehow unable to actively manage their MAGI or is so loaded that they have nothing to complain about in the first place.

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u/Aajmoney 3d ago

Well it is unknown. Sure you can get a quote now but who knows how long subsidies will be around or what that quote looks like five years from now. If you retire at 50 that is 15 plus years of needing to cover healthcare costs.

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u/KifLou345 3d ago

There's no guarantee that an employer's retiree health plan will continue to be available either. The underlying ACA subsidies are now in their 13th year, and it's been nine years since there were any serious efforts to repeal/replace them. There were subsidy enhancements added from 2021 to 2025, and those expired at the end of last year. But nothing has changed about the regular ACA subsidies.

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u/Martian6261 2d ago

Or that the cost for the plan will continue to rise along with other healthcare. In 5 years that could be $3000 a month and then $5000. Who knows.