Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Individual health insurance for a couple with one healthy teen--high-deductible or low-deductible?

I quit my job and I can continue with a decent health insurance plan for my family under COBRA, or I can switch to an individual plan. Being over 50, my wife is supposed to have over $500 of routine tests in a year, otherwise she's pretty healthy. My son and I are in pretty good health. Any payments we make would be deducted from my wife's salary before taxes. Our marginal income tax rate, including state tax, is about 19%. Would we be better off with low deductible and high premiums or the reverse? The COBRA plan is fairly low deductible and high premiums.
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Since u are healthy you should consider getting off COBRA ASAP. An individual/family plan should be almost half the cost of the COBRA.By keeping COBRA you run the risk of developing a medical problem that will make you ineligible for a individual/family health plan later on. When the COBRA time period ends you will be in trouble. Get off of it now. Most plans I sell are now $1,000 ded or $2,500 ded. Run the quotes and see what premiums make sense to you. You will have to pay this premium yourself and your company cannot deduct it pre-tax anymore but if you want a GREAT tax deduction look at an HSA plan. Look at the $5,450 family deductible plan and you can make a yearly contribution of this amount to your HSA and get a top-line tax ded on your IRS 1040 (line 28). The monies can then be used for qualified medical expenses subsidized, in effect, by the tax savings.
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