Can people with only 6-12 months before Medicare find affordable short term insurance?

Host: Can people who only have 6 months to a year left before Medicare, find short-term health insurance and how much does it cost?

Bob Hurley: Yeah, the market for early retirees is actually, very good for individual health insurance plans including short-term plans. So if only have a short period of time that you are trying to cover before you get into Medicare eligibility, there are plans available for you. You can buy a short-term plan or you can buy a major medical plan and simply keep it for six months to a year, you can do that because they are typically month to month types of plans.

I would encourage you to go out to the internet and put your birth date and in fact, in our website you don't have to give us any other information except for your zip code and your birth date and just based on that information we will be able to show you all of the plans available in your specific area and that way you can either get the pricing for those products that way.

It varies very much state to state so I wouldn't want to give you a price range here because it maybe very different for you and your particular market. So I would encourage you go out to the internet. Again, you just need the zip code and your birth date and you can actually start to see the pricing available in that particular market.

I think you will be surprised how affordable some of these plans are. Many of the largest companies such as Aetna and Humana and the Wellpoint Companies, the Anthem Wellpoint Companies are all beginning to develop products specifically targeted at these, at you folks that are in that pre-Medicare timeframe where you need something, you need coverage, you need it to be affordable, you need it to be able to be approved for coverage so that these insurance companies are all looking at ways to create products that meet all of those needs to get you covered ahead of Medicare. Now you may sit there and ask, "Oh! Come on, that can't be true. Why would they want me? I am getting ready for Medicare.

" Well, I have to tell you the reason they want you is that they want you to have one of their insurance products prior to becoming eligible for Medicare in the hope that you will continue on with them after you become Medicare eligible and that you will continue to get your services and your care through them.

So they absolutely want you and they are absolutely trying to target new products towards you that are going better fit your needs. So there are products out there and I want you to encourage you to go out and shop the internet. That's the best place to see what's available in the market whether you are going to be moving or not and see what the pricing and the product mixes are today.