Health Insurance

[Jim Guenther]

My wife and I have retired and sold everything to bike travel for a long time. We left Denver in July and now are in NYC. The issue is, we do not have a residence in Idaho any longer so keeping our health insurance, drivers license, residency, mail is a problem.  Any advice?

[ezdoesit]

I would say do you have children,a brother,sister or someone in the family that would let you use their home address as your place of resident and they would not have a problem with that so you and your wife can get your drivers license and health insurance sent there.
Just my thoughts and hope this will in some way help you out.

[Tourista829]

Being in the health insurance field, permanent residence is defined technically as the address you live at more than 6 months a year. As to the government it is where you pay your taxes. If you are 65 or older, and have Medicare Parts A&B you should pick up either a Medicare Advantage Plan with Prescription Drug Coverage or a Medicare Supplement with a stand alone Prescription Drug Plan. You would do this for two reasons. If God forbid, you have an incident that puts you in the hospital, Medicare Parts A&B leave big holes in coverage. The point is you want to limit your maximum out of pocket exposure. The reason you would want to pick up a Part D Prescription Drug Plan is the govenment will penalize you and your wife 1% each month, 3 months after you turn 65. As ezdoesit said, if you have a relative that you can establish residence you may be ok. This poses an interesting question, one I will inquire about, at work, tomorrow. 

[pptouring]

My wife and I have retired and sold everything to bike travel for a long time.

Nice and congrats! Enjoy your travels! My wife and I are looking at doing this in about 18 months, but we're not retiring, we're just saving up and plan on taking a year or so off.

[Tourista829]

Technically, in order to have a healthcare plan, to cover the things Medicare Parts A&B do not cover, and limit your maximum out of pocket medical expenses, you need a permanent address that you live at more than six months a year. Since a good portion of American retirees, are in motor homes traveling around America, do not have a permanent residence, I did some research and came up with an unorthodox but semi legal way to save money, on health insurance. Since you don't have a residence, you could get a P.O Box. A little on the internet and find a state with good coverage but an inexpensive premium and you will save a bundle. One thing that most retirees forget is, especially those who cycle, if they need healthcare, when traveling out of the country. They don't realize that Medicare Parts A&B only covers health care in the US, or in some situations near the U.S. border. Some Medicare Supplement Plans that works with Medicare Parts A&B, have a lifetime fund of up to 50k per person for emergency care outside the US. (Most group insurances don't have coverage either) This doesn't solve your other issues, (especially who will clean out your mailbox of all the junk mail) so ultimately, if you had a family member or friend who would let you use their residence as your permanent address this might be a better alternative.

[Alessa3322]

What did you end up doing?

[rayed]

Also curious about that. Choosing the right insurance is always tricky. I've heard some good things about brightway insurance customer service. Do you guys know them? It might be worth exploring their services and seeing if they can provide the coverage and assistance we need for our upcoming trip.

[froze]

Wow, what an adventure, you are very fortunate that BOTH you and your wife can physically do such a trip, my wife cannot.

My question is, do you plan on returning to your hometown in Idaho when the trip ends?  You can't stay out there the rest of your lives, so at some point you have to go and live someplace.

As far as the state in which you came from and have your driver's license in, they don't know you're gone, and there is no reason to tell them.  If by chance your license comes up for renewal while you're gone, then renew it online. 

If you have family or a very close friend in Idaho, simply use their address as your home address. Of course, you need to ask permission from them, but typically that shouldn't be a problem, you're not doing anything illegal, just using their address as your home address.  Then when you go back to Idaho establish a new address once you've found a place to live and get everything transferred.

Mail wise you can get a mail scanning service, RV'rs do this, the postal service scans your mail and you can view the mail online.  If you need a particular piece of mail you can get professional RV Mail Forwarding Services, Organizations like Escapees RV Club offer mail forwarding services specifically designed for full-time and part-time RVers. They handle your mail and forward it to your current location.  Even though you're on a bike just treat it as if you were in an RV.

Your biggest issue could be filing taxes, but if you do your taxes online, and then use a family members address you'll be ok.

I assume you set up all your bills, if you have any, for paperless filing.