What do you do for health care?

[Fishboy]

There's a thread on looking for doctors but, since many of us on PunaWeb are either retired, nearly so, or living without the foundation of corporate health coverage, I'm wondering what everyone does with healthcare in Hawaii. I'm not asking about the obvious; anyone working with health benefits or Medicare. But what about people who own their own business or, like me, are too young for Medicare and too old to expect that buying my own individual policy would be realistic?

My wife thinks there is some state-sponsored program, but I can't find anything on the internet.

What do you guys do?
Brian



Edited by - Fishboy on 12/01/2006 10:48:59

[Robin C]

Hi, Brian.

Could your wife be thinking of QUEST?
http://www.med-quest.us/eligibility/quest/quest.html

Looks like the asset threshold might disqualify anyone with a house.

Robin

[nanasohana]

In our house it is my husband and myself..Well we have been going to the Keaau clinic and the Pahoa clinic where they charge on a slidding scale. We had a financial surprise when I had to go to the Hilo ER and got charged a whopping $3500 for one visit. They did discount 30% since we had no insurance. Then came ultrasound and other tests with charges of about $700 we didn't expect. John is now working and is somewhat covered. I guess we are thinking for now eat healthy, exercise, get plenty of sleep etc. and hope for good health. Other wise.......well it could get tough.

[Brad W]

Brian,

Healthcare costs can trash your retirement. I was lucky that my retire early strategy worked, but that meant I had to carry my own healthcare premiums. They have increased from about $400 per month at retirement age 49, to about $700 today at age 54. I'm shopping for a policy with lesser premiums but it's not easy. I intend to sit down with the insurance rep at my doctor's office and find out who's good and who's not. Then contact each on the good list and ask for a quote.

[Green]

You may want to check out the kaiser health foundation website we found them considerably cheaper than on the mainland and you can apply online

[Fishboy]

Thanks to you all for responding. I looked at the Quest web site and had to do a double-take at the list of constraints for eligibility. You're ineligible if your assets exceed $3,000 or if your income is above the Federal poverty level. Does anyone else find it ironic and interesting that the Quest program maintains a web site that people they're supposed to be serving would likely not be able to access? The cost of an ISP and computer would push you toward that magic asset limit.

Well, anyway, I've heard of the Kaiser Foundation from other postings, so I'll do some research on that one. This is a sobering issue, to say the least, and the reality of escalating health care costs will likely define the age and ability for us to retire.

We're so fortunate to live in such an affluent country where the best of everything is immediately at hand; all you need to do is be able to pay for it. There's an irony in that, too.

Thanks again,
Brian



Edited by - Fishboy on 12/02/2006 02:40:24

[Kapohocat]

JUST FYI - if you are the tween group between poor and just broke, Safeway does a 55 yo discount program on prescriptions...



Edited by - kapohocat on 12/02/2006 08:14:35

[loffelkopffl]

fishboy, if you own your home/property it is exempt for the quest program, but if you own other properties than those are counted, aloha.

[Robin C]

A post on KW got me to this site.
Looks like a good place to investigate health insurance options.

http://www.healthinsurancesort.com/quote...urance.htm

[Kelena]

Does anyone use Kaiser? I understand that have a clinic in Kaiula-Kona. Zat right?