How do you go about health insurance in early retirement?

Keep the wife working is what I did it worked out great for me.

Many who can hold their income down, fill the gap between early retirement & medicare with ACA... A.K.A. Obamacare.

Get a second job.

ky_coyote_hunter, has the answer Affordable Care Act this is the proper name. ACA was a bipartisan health care policy not just obumers making.

Get it till I’m 65 free part of the deal

Affordable care act, just go on Medicaid both paid for by taxpayers. Free to you but not free.

I'm looking at retiring mid 50s. I'm tracking 2 health care numbers:
- the after subsidy cost of obamacare with taxible income managed to a target
- the full obamacare cost with 0 subsidy

That gives me an idea of an optomistic number and a pessimistic number ($20,000/year). There has been some talk of adding a work requirement in order to get the subsidies. Like 20 hours a week of either work or volunteering. That would infuriate early retirees, but it could happen.

Kinda surprised how many here are in favor of getting on obamacare.... although I guess I shouldn't be.....

We ALL have to pay our own way, or not?

I retired at 54. My wife was a school teacher. She retired at 57. She got 8 years of health insurance after her retirement.

In the interest of moral consistency, may we asssume you'll be skipping medicare?

The wife and I are on Christian healthcare ministries. Cost $600 a month for the two of us. We are about a year away from Medicare now. We retired at 62.

Was on my wife's insurance when I retired and before, as I worked after my regular age retirement for five more years, had the insurance guy come out and fix me up with Select health, thru Medicare

They have many different plans one can choose from, I have no problems with them at all, they also do a lot more than Medicare will for most things !

Once things get institutionalized, it becomes sort of the norm. My oldest kid got off my insurance this past summer when he turned 26. There wasn't much difference in premiums between his company's offered one and Market Place but the ACA one had better coverage. The ironic thing was that it was the same health care system.

Even in the largest metro area of South Dakota, there's only about four or so plans offered with ACA, with the two actual hospital systems getting the vast majority of the signed up clients.

What really opened my eyes with both the kid's situation and my wife seeing if there's a better deal for her off of my insurance (she's 18 months older than me and has chronic health issues) is the little cottage industry of insurance brokers that is out there. Truly amazing at the number of such people offering their services.

P.S. Snowy. If I remember correctly, the original Obama care legislation passed the U.S. House with 1 Republican vote. It was a Democrat sponsored and passed piece of law.

some of you need to get your facts straight.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), passed in 2010, was approved exclusively by congressional Democrats and signed by President Obama, with no Republican votes in either the House or Senate. The 2009 Senate vote was 60-39, and the 2010 House vote was 219-212, passing without any Republican support.

Key 2010 Voting Details
Senate: All 60 senators who caucused with the Democratic party voted to approve the measure (H.R. 3590) on December 24, 2009.
House: The final House vote on March 21, 2010, passed with only Democratic votes.

Recent Developments (2026)
In January 2026, a bipartisan group of 17 House Republicans joined Democrats to pass a three-year extension of enhanced ACA premium tax credits. This move followed a discharge petition used to force a vote on the subsidies.

and then this in 2017...

House Republicans Vote to Repeal the Affordable Care Act
May 08, 2017

House Republicans voted to pass legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA), President Obama’s signature health reform law on May 4. The House approved the measure by a vote of 217-213, just one vote more than the 216 needed. No Democrats voted for the bill. The legislation now heads to the Senate for consideration through a procedure known as a budget reconciliation that requires only 51 votes. Despite this lower threshold, it is unclear if the bill has enough support to be enacted in its current form.

Under the American Health Care Act (AHCA), an estimated 24 million people would lose their healthcare coverage. The bill would eliminate the funding available under the ACA and would roll back the ACA expansion of Medicaid that includes funding for supportive housing services that benefit people experiencing homelessness. These changes will be devastating to low income families who depend on Medicaid for access to healthcare and supportive services.

Republicans tried to bring the bill up for a vote in April, but had to pull the legislation at the last minute when they could not drum up enough votes to support it. After some last-minute deal-making, enough moderate Republicans who had initially opposed AHCA changed their position, allowing Republican leadership to bring the bill to the House floor and get it passed.

ACA seems to be what most do, who know how long the subsidies will last though...or get a part time job which offers health care like home depot or costco

I don't see the ACA ever going away now. Republicans might make noise about it now and then, but they don't have the desire to actually get rid of it. Once established, freebies are never done away with.

I busted my tail and saved like a fiend since I was in high school. How is it wrong if I need to get out early?

Did I miss a comment..? I didnt see where anyone said it was wrong. I think its great....sounds like you put in the time and just as importantly, did the right things with the earnings. Enjoy....