If you and your significant other retire right now, and if you represent the “average” couple, the two of you will need $200,000 to cover health care for 20 years. This is based on research by Fidelity, a company offering, among other things, investment products for those thinking about retirement.
This amount is up more than 5% over last year’s estimated cost. Assuming this health care metric continues to rise at 5.3% each year, someone who retires 30 years from now should expect to pay over $940,000 over the same 20-year retirement period. How much are you budgeting for health care in retirement?
There is good news for the economy as a whole, but not the good news you’re expecting. As mentioned in this CNN article, the new Health Savings Account (HSA) helps ease the pain of long-term health costs. There are some interesting findings — and here’s the good news: Those who have HSAs spend more money for the same care than those without, and they tend to avoid, skip or delay treatment. Over time, we may see the average lifespan decrease due to unaffordable health care. That may be good for the system as a whole, driving down the need for expensive elderly health care, but bad for those who would like to live longer and healthier.
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This issue isn’t going away. Before too long, there’s going to be a blog about dealing with healthcare in retirement.
A lot of this is the fault of bad choices. Many things we can’t control, such as some forms of cancer, or Alzheimers, or something else with a genetic component. But the way most Americans treat their bodies, they’re the ones causing themselves the higher bills in the future. Your average American couple is overweight and gets most of their exercise driving their cars to work (no joke–the leading calorie-burning activity in America is driving to work). Just goes to show that retiring successfully involves choices other than finances!