I have had health issues that probably cost in the order of 1/4 to 1/2 mil in health care dollars by the time that I fully recovered. I was only 41. I also could not work for 6 months and there was a period of time that we were not sure if I could go back to work. We have two little kids. So my not being able to work would have been a big financial blow if I did not have a "disability insurance" (DI). We definately would have had to downsize our lifestyle (smaller home, less expensive town etc), if I did not have DI and could not work. We never ended up using the disability insurance, but it sure gave us a piece of mind while I was so sick. Having had a personal experience of the situation, this is my take. Insurance issues: risk factors: most people diagnosed with a major illness have no risk factors. Don't let this give you a false sense of security. Just think through the financial risks. Your total/accumulative medical risks are completely unknown. You may be at low risk for diabetes and heart disease, but for breast cancer, your risk is the same as the general population, 1 in 7 in your life time. The actuarial people can do statistical analysis but.... Life time benefit cap/limit: this is probably more important than the deductible. If your insurance says 1 million cap that means after 1 million, the payment is cut off. They are pretty firm on this. I would say that for the same premium, have them raise the cap at a higher deductible. Many serious illnesses will run out of low insurance cap and I know of many that have... Long term care coverage: most health insurances will not cover for long-term care, for example nursing home care for more than a few months (90 days is typical), home health aide for more than a few months etc etc. Try to think through the need and you must plan for this as well. If there is not much personal asset, you can apply for Medicare. But if you have enough, you will not get Medicare until you exhaust your assets. Disability insurance: you must have disability insurance or ways to pay the insurance premium while you are sick. If you are sick and are not able to pay the premium, you will not be insured. Read the fine prints on the exclusion.... All of these have to come out of the insurance budget. Good luck.

There are a lot of different issues you need to look at here, especially if your husband has poor health and needs frequent medical care. First of all, it's hard to buy health insurance on your own that's cheaper than what you can get through an employer's group health plan. If your hushand has pre-existing conditions or health conditions for which he is currently under treatment, buying insurance for yourself could be essentially impossible. So be careful before you exit the employer's health plan, because it may be hard to get back in, and you could be left without any coverage at all. Generally speaking, people who purchase health insurance for themselves on the open market (as opposed to being in a group health plan at work) are going to buy some type of major medical plan with a high deductible. This is just about all you can afford if you're paying the whole cost of it yourself. If you do decide to look at plans that you can buy yourself, be very careful to look them over very carefully. For instance, they may have very specific limitations on pre-existing conditions. For instance, if a person takes blood pressure medication, they may refuse to cover the cost of that for the life of your policy. There may also be fairly low limits for "maximum lifetime benefits," meaning that if treatment for a serious illness ever runs in to the hundreds of thousands of dollars (as it easily can), you could at some point exhaust your coverage, and would essentially no longer have insurance. Also, if you or your husband spend a lot on prescription medications, that's something you need to consider carefully. How are these covered under the plan you're looking at? As you know, the costs of some of these drugs can run to thousands of dollars a year, and many "major medical" plans that are basically geared for catastrophic illnesses won't cover them. My suspicion is thst you are going to find that you'd be better sticking with your hushand's employer's group plan. Possibly there are some options there (such as a HMO or preferred-provider plan) that might save you some money, but going out and trying to buy health insurance on your own is usually only a viable option for someone who's in very good health and really does not anticipate needing a lot of medical treatment.

"I'd say it's well worth looking into, by asking someone who is a certified accountant (skip the employees of that highly advertised store front tax chain--they only get a few weeks course in tax prep, and the returns they prepare have a very high percentage of being audited)." Azzalea Please remember that not all CPAs are good tax preparers. There are many who are. Most CPAs donÂt actually prepare the returns themselves. They have a "back room" that does the tax prep. The CPA may review the return in detail or may not even look at it. What Azzalea says about the chain tax prep firms is a common misconception. There are tax preparers at those chains that have been doing taxes for over 10 or more years. I know several that have been doing tax returns for over 20 years with those big chains. IÂd like to know where azzalea got the information that leads azzalea to believe that the chains have a very high percentage of audits. I have never seen a statistic published by the IRS that shows this. The key to finding a tax person is to ask about their experience with returns similar to yours. Ask about the guarantee that your return is done correctly. Ask if they will go to an audit for no additional fee if you audited. Back to the original question, whether or not you have enough medical expenses depends on your situation, your income, your medical expenses and how many other itemized deductions you have.

I don't think AARP offers insurance. They're not an insurance company. It appears to me that the organization lends an AARP endorsement to various policies. I don't know if the insurance companies pay AARP. I haven't investigated that much because we have better opportunities (group insurance) through DH's former employer. I see that some Advantage plans include drug coverage. If they do, you don't need a separate Part D. I think it is illegal for a company to sell you one that would duplicate drug insurance. It looks like we're sticking with the Original Medicare coverage (A and B) plus the Aetna Integration policy ('Medigap' policy) for us both. We'll add a separate Part D for me. We did that combination for 2009 and it has been good for us. The policies are still reasonable for 2010 ($522 each for the Aetna Integration plan -- which pays the Medicare deductibles for MD's and hospitals). We can use any MD or hospital -- no HMO's or in-network requirements. We paid nothing out-of-pocket in 2009 because the Integration policy picked up the 20% Meidcare doesn't pay. We filed no paperwork. We haven't run into an MD or hospital that didn't take Medicare as our primary (in Chicagoland or on Maui). We could buy another Aetna Integration plan for less. The *only* difference is that it doesn't pick up the Medicare doctor and hospital deductibles ($135 and $1068). It's unlikely that either of us will be hospitalized, BUT if either of is, we'd lose what we'd saved by taking this policy instead of the more generous one. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that premiums for insurance are stated in monthly fees, because the annual costs are staggering! I'm also surprised to see people *thrilled* with low co-pays for generic drugs or doctor visits -- not taking into account huge premiums they're paying for the policy. We have to be decided by Saturday since our insurance is coming via DH's former employer. I've juggled the numbers as long as I can. My arms are tired!