Bad Decision Looking for Texas Health Care Data going Full Time

[SolarPoweredRV]

Was looking into what it would cost for Texas based health insurance (HMO/PPO) and or supplements on a Texas.gov web site once we go full time and a few months before one of us turns 65. Just to get an idea of what it might cost, plan names, limitations and coverage. You cant get any information unless you enter a phone number and e-mail address, that should have been a red warning flag! Well I entered information into the web site and now I have all these cockroaches coming at me from all over the country trying to sell me their health policy crap! What does someone from Ohio, Florida and other states know about Texas health care policies?
Its like I opened all the flood gates of H311! I should have known better, put in bogus email and phone number information, but had a lapse in brain function. These cockroaches are calling me constantly 3, 4, 5 times, emailing me, texting me bothering me constantly trying to sell me. They only want to give you a monthly cost number hard sell but not hardly any information about what is or is not covered. God I hate these kind of people! Now I'm spending time blocking all these **********????? from my phone and e-mail. Its like I have a virus eating at my phone and e-mail and I'm like an octopus trying to stop it!

One thing I did get out of it was Texas is not the most hospitable state for health insurance before age 65.

Tried to go to like the Escapees site to get info from them, but its frustrating to say the least on their site. Watched one of their health care plan videos and was more confused after listening to them hum, pause and bad video sound, just ended up stopping the video. They never did in the portion I tried to listen to really explain what the individual plans entail, cover or cost.

This is not going to be an easy, anonymous non-obtrusive thing to come up with decision making data in the going full time process.

Sorry for rant, gosh I made a bad mistake!

We recently faced the same issue with one of us not being 65 and eligible for Medicare coverage. We chose to go with the plan offered by the Family Motorcoach Association FMCA (Travel Trailers and 5th Wheels are now eligible to join).

The plan was offered by Philadelphia Life and it worked out very well for us. A couple of suggestions if you choose this plan (note: this is based on our experience and the plan(s) might be different now and also be different because you are in TX): the plan is different than other insurance plans. By this I mean that it is more of a self-administered plan, so, you will need to take an active role in managing your health care. For example: the plan has a limit on how much lab work is covered on a daily basis., consequently, you don't want to let your doctor simply draw blood and submit it to his lab of choice and wait for the bill to arrive, you can get some nasty surprises that way. Instead, there are private lab companies that you can order your labs from and have your blood drawn locally that have a preset price for the lab work you are ordering, you pay that lab by credit card and submit a claim to the ins company for reimbursement. Consequently, the labs your doctor would have sent in, cost only $69 instead of $500. It's not difficult to deal with, just something to be managed.

Additionally, depending on which state you live in, there is a ryder that essentially doubles the coverage, I highly recommend adding this coverage if it is available in your state.

We had this coverage for 3 years and we saved a ton of money based on the insurance we had previously from the employer.

If you would like to talk to the low pressure lady we purchased from, send me a pm and I can get that info out to you.

Additionally, it sounds like you are moving your domicile to Texas to start your full time RVing adventures. Because of the insurance issue, you might want to delay moving your domicile, or consider moving it to a different state than Texas until you are both 65.

Bottom line; we were very pleased with the FMCA/Philadelphia Life insurance for the years we had it.

[Steven@147]

We recently faced the same issue with one of us not being 65 and eligible for Medicare coverage. We chose to go with the plan offered by the Family Motorcoach Association FMCA (Travel Trailers and 5th Wheels are now eligible to join).

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If you would like to talk to the low pressure lady we purchased from, send me a pm and I can get that info out to you.

Additionally, it sounds like you are moving your domicile to Texas to start your full time RVing adventures. Because of the insurance issue, you might want to delay moving your domicile, or consider moving it to a different state than Texas until you are both 65.

Navigating the health care thing is a mess especially for fulltimers. Also the whole domicile thing with fulltiming. We looked at the same kind of policies you have but through the Escapee's group. We looked into them and decided against them.

We were always Texas residence, at least for the last 20 years, when we sold our Texas home we just had to change our address to Livingston Texas for our USPS mail service through Escapee's.
Using the health care market place and our zip, the Wife was able to get a good new health policy this year for zero copay and good coverage, Blue Cross BS of Texas. The Wife will go on Medicare next year.

I've got a Medicare Advantage Plan endorsed by AARP through United Health Care. Its new for our area Texas this year and is excellent coverage, we both can still keep our Doctors out of Austin in network that we have had for the last 20 years. Mine is primarily a Medicare Advantage HMO but does have good emergency medical care if I need it outside of network. We always return to the Texas area for winter every year Jan-April to get our yearly exams and blood work done, our eye exams and the Wife 's Allergy Dr visit. Its also convenient to get the RV safety inspected and license renewed in Feb

Both of our plans have excellent RX coverage and we have refilled our medication prescriptions all over the country using either CVS or WalGreens, we like Wal Greens the best, we could use WalMart but haven't. Mine cost $6 for a 90 days supply. The Wife's policy just picked up the cost of her Inhaler. Of course it all could change next year.

For our truck, the license plates are due in June and we are not usually in Texas at that time so we renew on-line and self certify we are out of the state so it doesn't need inspected. We get the renewal sticker in the USPS mail forwarded by Escapee's mail service. Once we hit Texas again we have a few days to get the truck safety inspected.