Cancelling FEHB health insurance

At this time we are planning on cancelling our FEHB health insurance since I am happy enough with the NHS and would rather have the $348 a month in my pocket (although I think it is a great deal if I were still living in the US). Since we are not planning on ever living in the US again this shouldn't be a problem. Any visits (rare) can be done with a couple of weeks of travel insurance. As far as I understand it....as long as we are living here permanently the IRS won't care and won't be an issue with the ACA requirements. Is there anything I am missing before I send the paperwork in? Slight gut check though since if I cancel the FEHB.....I can never sign back up for it.

I just need to send in this form...  https://www.opm.gov/forms/pdf_fill/RI79-9.pdf

In your situation I wouldn't hesitate to cancel it. You are never going to use it and you have no requirement to have it now that you live in the UK. $348/month is a lot of money.

I have used it in the past.....had a calf/achilles surgery right before we left in 2011. If I had gone through the NHS it would have taken forever and that was fixed within a month or so by going private.....I was thinking about holding on to it since I have "minor labrum tears" in my hip......but I think as long as I am not stupid enough to try and run again that shouldn't get worse.

I have used it in the past.....had a calf/achilles surgery right before we left in 2011. If I had gone through the NHS it would have taken forever and that was fixed within a month or so by going private.....I was thinking about holding on to it since I have "minor labrum tears" in my hip......but I think as long as I am not stupid enough to try and run again that shouldn't get worse.

I have heard that paying privately to get a specialist appointment or even for surgery itself is not all that expensive. Instead of paying $348/month you could put that into an ISA reserved for health costs and you then would be saving $4,176/year which grows tax free, treating it just as you would an HSA here in the USA.
http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/health-services/private-treatment/a4554/what-does-private-surgery-and-treatment-cost/

I have heard that paying privately to get a specialist appointment or even for surgery itself is not all that expensive. Instead of paying $348/month you could put that into an ISA reserved for health costs and you then would be saving $4,176/year which grows tax free, treating it just as you would an HSA here in the USA.
http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/health-services/private-treatment/a4554/what-does-private-surgery-and-treatment-cost/

We think alike. That was the plan. Basically £200 a month back in our pocket. £200 buys a lot of beer and golf balls.

We think alike. That was the plan. Basically £200 a month back in our pocket. £200 buys a lot of beer and golf balls.

If the ISA is in your wife's name you will not have to pay US tax on the interest assuming that as a UK citizen only she will not be filing US taxes.

If the ISA is in your wife's name you will not have to pay US tax on the interest assuming that as a UK citizen only she will not be filing US taxes.

Ahhhh, that's what I need to decide. I think I get a little more money back on taxes if I put her on my taxes (about $800 last year)......but to just make things a lot easier/simpler I am considering just going without her from now on. Then I just have to worry about my taxes only.

Update:
Well those *#%@$@# buttheads at OPM/Govt........finally got a response to my email from a month ago (I have a request for info about this from 22 Dec that they still haven't responded to) about whether they cancelled my health insurance. Nope. Even though we sent it registered mail/special delivery......and they signed for it on 14 Dec.....they have no record of it getting there. So now we are out a couple of months of health insurance (about $700 so far) and they requested I re-send or Fax......aaarrrrg. Guess we will head down to the library tomorrow and see if I can Fax it to them this time....it has got to be cheaper than mailing/registered/special delivery etc. With my luck they won't take it now since it is outside the "Open Season" period of time for making changes.

Although I am getting a little more worried that the Conservatives are trying harder and harder to privatise the NHS.

F4, Sorry to hear about your trials and tribulations with the healthcare crowd in the USA. 

One thing you will find different in the UK is that a couple of years ago they changed the law so that if you wish to cancel an automated payment from your bank then you can do so without the permission of the business that you are paying.  The US is still in the situation where the business is the one that has to stop the payments. (I've a couple of situations where this has happened to me and ended up chasing them for 2 or 3 months, getting refunds before they finally cancelled the direct debit or automated credit card charge)

F4, Sorry to hear about your trials and tribulations with the healthcare crowd in the USA. 

One thing you will find different in the UK is that a couple of years ago they changed the law so that if you wish to cancel an automated payment from your bank then you can do so without the permission of the business that you are paying.  The US is still in the situation where the business is the one that has to stop the payments. (I've a couple of situations where this has happened to me and ended up chasing them for 2 or 3 months, getting refunds before they finally cancelled the direct debit or automated credit card charge)

In my case it isn't just cancelling the health insurance. When you quit working for the Govt you have to decide whether you want to keep the Govt subsidised insurance (almost everybody does)......the only way you can keep it is to have the payments come directly out of your pension payment. So if I can get them to stop my health insurance....that money (about $350 a month) will go into my pension payment instead of disappearing before I see it.