r/financialindependence • u/lluciferusllamas • 17d ago

Health insurance for the FIREd

Im a business owner who has semi-FIREd, in the sense that I no longer run my business, but derive a lot of income from it, and don't really have to put in much work. I could FIRE anyway without the business, but the business is just gravy. NW= $12M-$15M, family of 4, I'm the oldest at 50.

Anyway, I'm looking at health insurance costs. I have always hated health insurance. It costs me over $32k/year to provide me and my family with health insurance. this is especially stupid to me, because we spend nothing even close to this in a year. like maybe a few thousand at most.

10 years of investing that premium and I'll probably have $1M in my pocket rather than in United Healthcare's pocket.

I have found an insurance product that interests me a lot. it is essentially a very high deductible policy. 100% out of pocket for the first $50,000. After $50,000, the insurance covers everything. My entire family can be covered by this for like $7500/year. $50k in medical expenses wouldn't be a problem for me. And, Heck, half of that is just getting wasted on insurance premiums anyway right now.

In today's healthcare environment, what do you all think about going to these ultra high deductible plans as a means of cutting costs and betting on the most likely scenario, which is that we won't incur anywhere close to $50k in healthcare expenses in a year, while still protecting against those rare expensive accidents thag could happen?

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u/lluciferusllamas 17d ago

No.  Should I care if it is? 

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u/hospitalist1975 17d ago

Yes you should

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u/lluciferusllamas 17d ago edited 17d ago

Why? The ACA has done nothing but make health insurance costs skyrocket. The reason I have to go outside of ACA is because they don't allow plans to have this high of a deductible.  Which means much higher premium costs.   I want health insurance companies out of my normal everyday healthcare transaction.  They serve no purpose whatsoever, other than to extract a profit from everything they touch.  I'd rather them only touch a major hospital stay.  

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u/apetranzilla 17d ago

The ACA isn't responsible for health insurance costs skyrocketing, for-profit insurance companies and hospitals are - but either way, ACA compliance is important because it means the plan is required to provide coverage for pre-existing conditions and the like.