If she likes PT, have her ask PT to put her on waitlist for cancelations. Many offices will run a waitlist and call when there’s an earlier opening.
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Regarding COBRA coverage, it will be the coverage that you had as an employee. When you are selecting medical plans at work, it may be worth noting the total cost (including the amount paid by the employer as well as what you pay) for each plan option, because the one you choose will be the one you will get COBRA for if / when you retire or otherwise end employment there.
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Thanks for all of this information. I’m not going to give up on retiring in five years but looks like I have lots of research to do.
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Start hanging out on the retire thread. You’ll pick up a lot!
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You only need TWO eligible employees to be a “group” (at least in our state), and it’s not necessary for both to enroll.
I’ve been the only member of our 2 employee group for a few years.
How do they feel about the ACA though? 
(Sorry, couldn’t resist.)
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But if you’re a husband and wife company, you’re not a group.
$890/month next year for me. Cheapest, crappiest insurance I can purchase. 
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I pay a bit under $700/mo for a decent Covered CA HMO plan that has my primary care physician (not accepting new patients) in network. It’s less expensive than the cobra we had when H retired. He’s now on Medicare. I’ll be there next September. I found Covered CA reps very delightful to deal with in helping work through getting the application filed and accepted.
My theoretical COBRA versus ACA plan goes the opposite way. Comparing the employer + employee cost of the “high deductible with HSA” plan from employment to a “bronze with HSA” ACA plan with the same provider network, the latter is around 35% more expensive, with a deductible more than twice as high.
The likely reason is that the employer’s employee demographic appears to be relatively young and therefore lower in medical costs than the assumed medical costs for someone of my age.
So COBRA versus ACA plan could go either way, depending on your specific situation.
Yes, absolutely COBRA vs ACA can go either way. One of the big factors is income, since low income (sometimes retiree living off savings) can mean ACA subsidy.
My 22 yr old worked at Starbucks for about a year. There was a woman there in her late 30s/early 40s who was only there for the insurance. They have a low number of hours you have to work to get the insurance. She has kids so was able to get them on the policy too. She is an independent hairdresser but no insurance with that, hence Starbucks.
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We have a friend who was a high level hospital administrator. After retirement/before Medicare, he worked at Starbucks for the insurance. D worked there in college, and she had several coworkers who worked there for the insurance.
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It’s messed up that people have to do that in this country.
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Just for future reference, a handy saying to remember…
Silver hair? Medicare
Underpaid? Medicaid
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H’s former employer did not contribute to COBRA costs. Since he retired we’re mostly living off savings so I do get an ACA subsidy. My plan is Silver 70 HMO through Anthem Blue Cross since they have my current PCP and preferred hospital, etc. in network.
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Yikes! Here a full pay PPO plan for me (58) would be $1000/month for a 4 star Silver (huge network) and $1100 a month for a 4 star gold plan (different company)
Many people at my work qualify for retirement health care that is either fully free (!) if you worked there a certain number of years (30+) or something incredibly reasonable (like $1,500 a year) if you worked for a certain number of years less.
I missed the hiring cut-off by 6 months to qualify for anything lower cost so have to pay full-freight.
Retirement healthcare from companies is an amazing benefit!
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Yes indeed! Last week our financial advisor mentioned that these days it’s mostly just teachers and govt workers that still get retirement healthcare.
My company used to have it. When they phased it out, they created an account that is helping to tide me over to Medicare. (To qualify, you need to be age 55 or have 15 years. When I was on layoff list at age 53.5 with 32 years, I was irate over that rule. Happily I dodged the bullet and got a job transfer that enabled me to workanother 4 years.).
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And not even then. I am pretty sure all H qualifies for as a VA state teacher is a $100/month extra in his pension to help offset the cost. I am a local govt worker and I mentioned upthread that a single retiree was $2500/month over 10 years ago. We will be at the mercy of the exchanges until we qualify for Medicare. When we “retire” I mostly plan to keep working to help pay for the health insurance until Medicare.
CT retired teachers get $110 a month towards health insurance until they are Medicare eligible. Let’s just say…while every penny counts, $110 is a drop in the bucket for full costs.
One school district around here put in a great incentive for retired teachers from their district. Since 2020, they have had a horrible time finding substitutes. Any retired teacher in that district who will sub 30 days a year gets FREE health insurance for that year.
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