About ten or so years ago (pre-Medicare) I learned about medical expenses including premiums. We were routinely itemizing. So I went back and filed amended returns for the previous three years to include premiums and we got a nice little chunk of money back. I am still itemizing for our state returns (California standard is not all that high) so am including Medicare, supplemental, and Part D.
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Husband will turn 65 middle of September 2025. His retiree healthcare plan is being discontinued January 1 2025.
The company from which he retired from is giving us a stipend of $950 a month to buy private insurance or we can go on the marketplace exchange, if our yearly income is low enough to subsidize more than the $950.
The devil is that when looking at private health insurance plans, none of them seem to cover Humeria.
Prices wonāt be known until November 1 and we canāt schedule a call with the company that is facilitating this transition until then.
So I wait and worry
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Did you mean Humira? Just curious because Iāve never heard of Humeria.
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I donāt know anything about Humira, put some of these high cost drugs offer a program where the manufacturer picks up cost. Perhaps ask your provider if such a program is available.
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I complete all the stuff on Turbo Tax, as our state filing has all those deductions which greatly reduces our State Income Tax. I will have to look closely at what we can put in with Medical Expenses - if the premiums we pay can be included.
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And incredibly regulated! My S worked in that industry and got tired of the politics that inevitably accompany regulation.
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I donāt like the ST part of it and maybe what kind of commission is associated with it. IDK what else you have in your portfolio to keep your risk index to a comfortable level for you.
We have, over time, purchased different time lengths of annuities ā when it was wise to purchase. Our annuities are about 31% of our portfolio and range from 6 years to 12 years in maturity; amounts ranging from $92,000 to $250,000. We get a cash stream each month (we take out the maximum w/o penalty which is after the first year of the annuity), and the value of the annuity stays about the same due to the gains (by contract) - have an allocation strategy with specifics like what is the index, what is the equity index allocation, strategy spread, strategy term.
I dislike bonds - and these annuities are much lower risk IMHO - better return and guaranteed return.
But you need to have a FA that truly understands annuities and when it is a good time to purchase annuities.
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lol, yes! Canāt spell and now with clumsy thumbs and autocorrect Iām failing!
No, it is not you. These drug names are totally bananas. I was just thinking it is a new one that I have not heard of and that has a very similar sounding name to a well known one! 
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Many brand drugs have a copay assistance programs. I have used them for several of my husbandās medications before we were on Medicare. You can not usually use these when on Medicare or VA.
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Can he ask his doc about alternative prescriptions that might work just as well and are covered by insurance?
We have the copay assistance and are aware of the ins and outs of it. I think it pays up to $30,000 which Iām pretty sure wonāt get us 9months.
Also I think we need insurance that will cover the medication at some point. To qualify for the copay assistance.
Iām not sure any marketplace insurance will let us have copay assistance so we will have to pay our premiums plus our deductible. If we have private insurance, I think we can still utilize the copay assistance. Either way we are looking at a big increase in our costs.
A question to ask his representative the next time they have a call. Also will ask his rheumatologist when he sees him in 2 weeks about alternative medication.
Weāve been lucky and the company has picked up the cost of coverage for him from retirement until Medicare. This a new territory for us.
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Iām on the exchange, the plan I have allows me to use copay assistance.
On the one hand itās good, because they let the copay assistance amounts count towards my deductible.
On the other hand itās stupid because the manufacturer is willing to sell me the drug directly for 1/4 of what my insurance company charges, if I donāt use the insurance.
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Responding to upthread posts - thanks much for the tip to go to Costco for glasses! Iāve been putting that expense off for about 5 years - and my trendy Warby Parker ones from 8 years ago were super easily scratched and not great.
Want to get some bigger healthcare type expenses managed in years prior to retirement, so tx again.
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Thanks for that information, super super helpful. And reassuring. And yes the whole thing is stupid!
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@deb922, is your husband a veteran by any chance? It is remarkably easy (actually too easy) to find yourself in one of the categories where they cover your health care. They were covering my dadās $500/month blood thinner prescription for free. Both me and my husband have been given VA health care that we have never utilized, but if we had an expensive medication, that would be well worth pursuing.
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Thatās a good idea. Todayās dentist appoint reminded me that Iām glad I stashed up HSA funds pre-retirement. (Iām self-pay on dental, though for next year Iāll probaby get the dental plan again.) My employer encouraged high deductible plan / HSA contribution (and added $500/year to HSA if you did so.
HSA tips:
- Set up your account id/pw, make some investment choices. Since I had no plans to tap the HSA until retirement, I procratinated on that. Thus for the early years my money at Fidelity HSA account was in the default cash fund, almost no interest.
- Before using your HSA debit card, make sure you have transferred money to back to cash/debit fund. (I embarrassed myself at first use at eye doctor when my HSA debit card was declined. āWhat? There is $18k thereā.)
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Talking to my husband about starting a retirement business (with the goal of being able to write off health insurance premiums), and he was interested in two self employment possibilities. One would be getting his boat captainās license and chartering our boat out, but you have to use your boat over 50% of the time for business to depreciate it (doubt that would happen), and Iām not sure if you could write off the health insurance.
The second thing heās interested in is getting some commercial greenhouses and growing flowers on our forestry property. There has to be an intent of making a profit for a business, so apparently you can still deduct expenses even if it takes awhile to make a profit. So maybe we can go that direction. I think in retirement, you really want to start a business doing something youāre interested in, or it will fall by the wayside.
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This feels like a lot of effort to save on some taxes. Thatās the goal, right? How much are we talking?
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The insurance premiums (health care alone, not including dental) are going to be 36K. We would be able to deduct all the costs of the greenhouses, and hopefully make a decent profit at some point. Heās been talking about doing this since we bought the property just because heās interested in it, so it wouldnāt be purely for the tax write off. I think heād do it eventually even if we couldnāt write off a cent, actually.
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