Obamacare questions

[Joey G]

Home of record is USA. I know for sure our BCBS means little or nothing to most medical facilities in the Philippines. Our BCBS (Federal Employee Plan) will cover expenses anywhere in the world, so you have to file yourself.  

 

 

[OnMyWay]

45 minutes ago, Joey G said:

Home of record is USA. I know for sure our BCBS means little or nothing to most medical facilities in the Philippines. Our BCBS (Federal Employee Plan) will cover expenses anywhere in the world, so you have to file yourself.  

Home of record is not what I asked.

Does the BCBS plan cover you when you are LIVING anywhere in the world?  That detail might be buried in the policy fine print.

[Mike J]

As mentioned in an earlier post, there is no tax penalty if you live outside the USA on a permanent basis.  There is no cost for the basic Medicare, I believe the basic Medicare is called "part A".  So there is no reason not to sign up for it as it costs nothing.  Part B does cost money.  If they have no plan or intention to ever seek medical care in the USA, and intend to remain expats the rest of their lives, the cost of "B" coverage would be a waste.  Obviously this is my opinion, as some will say "you never know what may happen".   Can't really offer advice on the insurance they carry as that comes down to quality of service, premiums, tolerance of risk.  My wife and I have chosen to go self insured, except for PhilHealth.  I have basic Medicare no part B.   She is currently 57, we may go with part B when she qualifies in case she should ever decide to return to the USA after I die.  She is dual citizen.  

[Lee]

5 hours ago, Joey G said:

My monthly BCBS is a little under $500, but it is employer (retired) subsidized, so the $1,200 (unsubsidized) is pretty close.

Neighbor just told me that BCBS is $800 per month for both of them. Medicare Part B is about $200 per month which is taken out of her SS.

BCBS also has a $750 per year (I think---hopefully not for every claim) deductible. BCBS quit paying for monthly maintenance meds a few years back with no explanation.

[OnMyWay]

26 minutes ago, Lee said:

BCBS quit paying for monthly maintenance meds a few years back with no explanation.

They did not ask?

Speculation on my part, but BCBS may have cut them off when they realized they were living out of the U.S.  That is why I was asking Joey about residency.

[Lee]

3 hours ago, OnMyWay said:

They did not ask?

I will ask them for more specifics.

[Joey G]

4 hours ago, OnMyWay said:

Does the BCBS plan cover you when you are LIVING anywhere in the world?

Yes, BCBS covers me anywhere I am living, even overseas.  In fact, if you are living overseas, they even make availability to TELEDOC as another alternative.   

Another reason I wouldn't drop it.

 

 

[Lee]

2 hours ago, Lee said:

I will ask them for more specifics.

OK, starting in 2015 or so they would fill out an BCBS overseas form, bundle up a few months of receipts, and send them to the US to be processed. A couple of months later a check was cut and deposited in their bank.

In recent years when they went through this same process, their claims were denied. On the denial form was a block giving the reason for the denial. It was always blank. The form went on to state that if they wanted to have your claim reconsidered, please resubmit the ORIGINAL receipts and send them back. Tough to do that as the ORIGINAL receipts were in the first claim pack and all they got in return were copies.

Anyway they started calling the 1 800 #s on the card to no avail. Their calls were usually dropped after an hour or so on ignore. If they get a hold of someone then they were told to call another number. At one one point they were told to call the claim processing office in AZ. No one ever answered. Emails did nothing. So they just quit trying but kept the insurance "just in case" they were ever in the US and needed it.

[MikeB]

If you are collecting SS retirement before Medicare age (65) you are automatically signed up for Part A (hospital benefits) and Part B (office) when you turn 65. Part A is not charged but Part B is about $200 per month which comes out of the monthly benefit. You have an option to opt out of Part B which makes sense since you can't use it overseas. You can always reinstate it if you move back to US as I did.

If you wait till after 65 to collect SS retirement you have to sign up for Medicare, it isn't automatically done. So says medicare.gov.

No idea about BCBS but I think the best option if you want insurance is go with a local company (as someone else said) and get in-patient only since dr visits are (or used to be very cheap. 

[Possum]

I would advise anyone from the US who reached retirement age and is not covered by COBRA to sign up for Medicare B ASAP. IF not you will pay a penalty for every year you do not. If you are a US citizen retired in the Philippines and have a major medical issue you can always go back to the USA, it;'s less than 24 hours away. Medicare B does not cost that much. If you think you can pay for treatment cheaper in the Philippines remember Medicare doesn't pay here and if you choose to be self insured here it can be expensive. I had chemo here 13 years ago and at that time it was 15,000USD per treatment and I was required to have 8 treatments. Luckily I had employer covered insurance. Heart issues are another issue that get very expensive for quality care here. For everyone I know that had quality care I know 3 who died. Another issue is if one is at the end of one's life from a painful disease one can suffer a really painful death as the few doctors allowed to prescribe pain medication may not be close to where you live and expensive. My wife's sister died a horrible painful death due to the problem of getting pain medications.

Keep your options open for medical care. This is a third world country with commensurate facilities for medical care.