<p>Here’s a question my adult D (25) brought up that we can’t seem to find definitive information on, that maybe you all have figured out.</p>
<p>I live in So Cal, she in NYC (she’s been there for 6 years now). She is considering trying out a different city in the US (having spent 10 months in London) but probably not until next fall, she’s batting around Denver and San Francisco (Portland also was mentioned). She is trying to unravel the affordable healthcare act (me too) and we started wondering if the plan she buys into is a nationally accepted plan, or will she need to reapply someplace else if/when she relocates? </p>
<p>I feel like there need to be classes for us to take to be able to make informed decisions, like they do each year (here in So Cal anyway) for Medicare signups. There is a lot to unravel.</p>
<p>When she moves, she is entitled to reapply for new coverage; moving counts as a “qualifying event” for the purposes of the ACA. She will most likely want to get new coverage when she moves. Insurance in the US is sold by region. Although in some cases your insurance plan is usable in another state (and we’ve had a lot of discussion of that over in the other ACA thread) she wouldn’t have any reason to keep an old plan once she moved to a new area unless for some reason she would be willing to travel back to her old area to get care.</p>
<p>If she is very low income, and wants to rely on Medicaid, she should make sure she moves to a Medicaid expansion state. Colorado, California and Oregon are all expansion states, so Denver, San Francisco and Portland would be acceptable from that perspective.</p>
<p>The state of California does in fact have outreach events to help people navigate the dizzying changes of the ACA. Here’s a schedule:</p>
<p>Here’s an interesting fact I discovered when looking for insurance for a hypothetical 26-year-old in San Francisco who earns $30,000 a year: it’s cheaper for her to get a Bronze insurance plan (a standard insurance plan with a deductible) than to get a minimal coverage catastrophic plan! </p>
<p>Usually you’d think that a young person who felt invincible would just buy a catastrophic plan, but it turns out that the regular non-catastrophic plans come with subsidies for our young woman and the catastrophic plan doesn’t. She’d pay $133/month for the second-lowest Bronze plan, but $193/month for the catastrophic plan.</p>
My son lived quite comfortably in SF on well under $30K about 8 years ago. He didn’t own a car - didn’t need one – and he lived in a shared rental, typically paying about $600/month for a room. I absolutely adored his last apartment and roommates --it was hard for him to give that up when he made the decision to move out to return to college in 2006. Great location, very centrally located. </p>
<p>My d’s first job after graduating college paid $35K; she was living in Manhattan. (Take my word for it, Manhattan costs a lot more than SF). She has since moved to Brooklyn; also does not own a car and shares a 2 bedroom apartment with one other person. I also love her apartment there, love the rapidly gentrifying neighborhood as well. </p>
<p>I think some people at the upper end of the economic spectrum have an unrealistically high sense of overall cost of living. My son had to read the book “Nickeled and Dimed” in college and hated it - I hated it for the same reasons – neither one of us could figure out why the author insisted on living alone.</p>
<p>Maybe Ms. Hypothetical is sharing an apartment with her boyfriend. Maybe she’s a live-in nanny. Maybe she lives with her parents. Maybe she shares a place with three college friends. There are people in SF who make $30K or less.</p>
<p>LVKris is right; I used Covered California’s website. The Health Sherpa is also a good site for a quick check of insurance rates. [url=<a href=“http://www.thehealthsherpa.com%5DHealthSherpa%5B/url”>http://www.thehealthsherpa.com]HealthSherpa[/url</a>]</p>
<p>Unfortunately the Health Sherpa doesn’t have the data for Oregon or Colorado. Connect for Health Colorado, Colorado’s exchange, doesn’t make it easy to price shop, and Oregon’s website isn’t even online. I have no idea why these exchange websites didn’t realize that people want to get quick prices without going through the hassle of actually making an account.</p>
<p>I know somebody that was making $30,000 a year living in SF with roommates and help from parents. Since I dont know everybody, I am assuming there are others.</p>
<p>I dont know why Santa Rosa cant be replaced in the post if it makes people feel better. The idea of using a subsidized bronze plan instead of a catastrophic plan is something to be looked at wherever your kid lives.</p>
<p>I just tried using Cover Oregon to check prices. I don’t recommend the experience. It’s very buggy, seriously broken. Perhaps I would have had more success if I’d used Internet Explorer.</p>
<p>Our insurance is a BCBS plan based in HI. Both our kids were able to use it with no problems, even when they lived in CA and VA. S has finally purchased a plan, since his turning 26 was a qualifying event, requiring him to get his own policy, which his employer subsidizes. Don’t have details about his plan other than it is a PPO, which allows him to see more providers than otherwise, but am glad he got one.</p>
<p>Let me rephrase this, to get us back on topic:</p>
<p>Protip: **If your young adult child is eligible for subsidies, a Bronze plan might be cheaper than a catastrophic plan for them. ** People with incomes less than $45,960/year are eligible for subsidized insurance.</p>
<p>Per capita income usually includes children, teens, and unemployed.
If so, it’s a little misleading. It’s not average & that would also be misleading.</p>