Dedtired...I too had to pay the same the year before Medicare. When on Cobra it is required that the HI take you and cannot deny due to pre-existing conditions. Was with mine for 5 years, but they just kept kicking up the premiums to the last year at 759 a mo. At 65 I found a supplement plan for $90 a month, they pay 100% of what is left after Medicare regardless of the need. Signed for 3 years option to keep the monthly cost. Every year after the 3 it goes up now about 20%, but the coverage remains the same. This year could be the last to afford them. No other insurance will cover me if I lose this. So I'll be in the same situation as many of you. A broker told me that with specific medications and/or condition, a company adds about $50 per item to the monthly cost...if they will even accept you. Health Insurance is for the wealthy or healthy. I'm with all of you, what to do without insurance and am floored by the many posting here without. I know what my medical costs will be for a year and weigh that in to the insurance cost to me...for now. Have mentioned more than once to others that if my IQ was even 1 level down, would never figure any of this out. And the older we get the worse it is to know what to do. Medicare changes are two thick books and one had best know what is and isn't. They have taken away 2/3 of the approved medications. When I asked the pharmacy about one of mine, he said it was due to too many falls from the elderly using it. Jeesh, I use it to keep from falling. We are all in trouble health wise, growing older with all the new research to resolve so many conditions isn't going to do any of us any good. Health insurance will be too costly to utilize great advances. Admission I do not understand what is being created for health coverage by the gov. It eludes me with crazy details. OT. Our state now has a law that if you are stopped for anything when driving or get in an accident and taking a medication that cautions driving while using it, they can charge you with a DUI. I'm waiting for a DUI law because of my age.

If she has a minimal income (which albeit has to be significantly minumal for a single person) she should be able to get medicaid. I would tell her though that that is not a pleasant process. My experiance (when I first had my daughter and needed it) was not a pleasant one. The people are mean and well downright awful and their first response is NO. I went in knowing exactly what I qualified for and didn't except no for an answer. I already knew what forms to fill out so when they told me I had to do certain things (which basically just make you life more difficult and are not a requirement) I told them flat out No, I don't have to do that I only need to fill out this this and this. Visit your state resource to find out the income requirements and such in your specific state. They are different for each. Also - I happen to find this as well In the US, there are a few alternatives that you may want to investigate. The first is Medicaid, if you financially qualify. If your income level is over the Medicaid limit, you may still qualify for Medicaid by using a spend down equation (usually the amount of income you receive over and above their income guidelines). To become eligible for Medicaid your allowable medical expenses must be more than your spend down amount. Expenses for medical care that may be considered in this equation include care from hospitals, doctors, clinics, dentists, drugs, medical supplies and equipment, health insurance premiums, transportation to get medical care, personal assistance services, and adult home help services that are related to your medical care. Read more on this here: --> Medicaid Eligibility http://www.rare-cancer.org/health-insurance.html

I am very sorry for your loss, words don't express this well enough. Get a "Certificate of Credible Coverage" from your husband's employer in order to go on your work plan without pre-existing conditions. I cannot stress this enough. Yes, make sure it's the coverage you want. COBRA is the exact same coverage you already have under your husband's plan. Albeit expensive, you can continue with it until you make up your mind. It's not less in any way, unless you have a plan that is currently inadequate. What is COBRA? The Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 (COBRA) requires most employers with group health plans to offer employees the opportunity to continue temporarily their group health care coverage under their employer's plan if their [or in your case, your husband's] coverage otherwise would cease due to termination, layoff, or other change in employment status (referred to as "qualifying events"). Here is a link that might be useful: COBRA

The trouble with LTC insurance is that it is like health or auto insurance - carriers enter the market, and some of them price poorly and end up leaving the market. A good carrier may close a book of business (e.g., stop selling a particular type of policy) and come out with a slightly different policy calculated to provide a better profit margin or improved mortality. This is the way insurance works, it's just good business to them. LTC is not a new product at all. Met Life has been selling LTC insurance for 25 years. Lincoln Benefit (I think I accidentally listed it above as Lincoln National, which is a different company) has a huge block of LTC business and for many years was the low-cost carrier. They are owned by Allstate and are in no danger of going under. They closed their current book of business to bring out a completely new LTC product, one of the new hybrid LTC/annuity policies. None of their existing policyholders will see any raise in premiums or adjustment to the terms of their current policies; the "book" is merely closed for new business. That's how a GOOD carrier works, as opposed to a bad one. Where do you find a good carrier? That's the difficulty, you need to find a good agent, not just a "friend who works in the insurance business." Hard to find, just like trying to find a good car mechanic, LOL! Nursing homes around here vary from $3500 to $6000 month. Even if our policy does not cover all the costs, a drain of $1000/mo is a lot better than $72,000 per year, I'm sure you'd agree. The reason I don't rely on the statistic about nursing home care only being needed for an average of 2 years is that as the Boomer population ages, I believe that length of stay average will rise rapidly. And in fact, the largest growing age group in the US is the group over age 80. Since our policy pays for at home care as well as convalescent or nursing care, we feel we have done what we can to MINIMIZE risk. You cannot eliminate all risk; it's impossible. A recent article in the WSJournal calculated that someone with a net worth of at least $5M wouldn't need LTC insurance. Remember that these days, being worth $1M or $2M is so commonplace that the government statistics don't even track it any longer; the bar is now at $100M+. There is no way my DH and I could afford long-term care without insurance. Even though our net worth is well over $1M we simply don't have that kind of liquidity without having to sell the house. My DH had a minor stroke at 50 -- not only is he virtually uninsurable now, but his mortality got halved right there. His chances of being disabled as he ages are considerably higher. Had we waited to obtain LTC insurance for even a few years, we would never have been able to afford it even if we could have found a carrier willing to write a policy on him. I agree that not having health insurance is foolish; on the other hand, if you can stagger along until age 65 (and assuming that somewhere along the line your employer or spouse's employer paid the Medicare A costs) a Medigap policy with zero-doughnut drug benefit is available at a relatively reasonable cost, certainly a lot less than the $900/mo cost (for an individual; $1200/mo for a couple) for my husband's current employer HMO plan. But it is almost a certainty that somewhere down the line, if you and/or your spouse live long enough, one of you will need LTC. And right now, nobody will pay for that except you. With all the disadvantages of private insurance, the fact remains, waiting for the government to take care of your LTC needs is a very dicey proposition indeed. What I point out to most younger people I know is that if they are going to buy a home and have children, they really need term life insurance. Nowadays with most couples dependent upon two incomes to make it, it is disastrous to consider burdening your lives with debt and obligations without buying life insurance. As mortality has improved, the premiums for term life have dropped substantially in the last couple of years. $40/mo will buy a $500K level premium term for 20 years on a 40-yr old in good health. When I worked at a financial planner's office for a while, it was interesting to see that there were quite a few clients who were widows, from ages 50-75. Their major assets were the home and insurance proceeds. Without the latter, some of them would have been in serious financial difficulties. My apologies for seeming to get OT here, but my point is that if you are going to own a home, there is not just health insurance but other insurance issues which are just as important for long term financial planning. To ignore them is being penny-wise and possibly pound-foolish. Thinking that "the odds are it won't happen to me" is taking a big risk. Nothing wrong with that, but I often wonder why people are willing to take such huge risks with their personal retirement finances when they are so often vociferous in proclaiming they want minimal risk when investing in the stock market.