Each year, Fidelity Investments estimates the health care costs for a couple in retirement until death. The number is both terrifying and laughable, routinely in quarter-million-dollar territory. Yes, $250,000 on top of the millions needed to fund retirement. Oh, and it doesn't include the cost of nursing home care...If the 6 percent annual increase is accurate, you can use the rule of 72 to estimate the amount in the future, because the $250,000 would double every 12 years (72/6).
The Boston-based financial company released its estimate for a 65-year-old couple retiring in 2011 on Thursday. Surprisingly, the estimate dropped 8 percent to $230,000 thanks to recent changes to Medicare... Unfortunately, the drop is expected to be a one-time only "break." Expenses should continue rising steadily in the future...
Since the company started calculating the number in 2002, the annual health care costs estimate has increased an average of 6 percent annually.
Kara McGuire's column at the StarTribune has more details re the methodology, and links to Fidelity resources.
OR. . .
ReplyDeleteYou could move to another country.
Most of the civilized world has national health care.
Can an American retire somewhere and participate? At least in some we can. I plan on retiring to Mexico, where we can buy in for a modest amount monthly. And retirement is not far away at all for me.
Yes, many laugh at an American moving elsewhere and considering that we might get good health coverage. But MANY of us lost our jobs and the cost of buying "private" health care is out of our reach, so ANY health care is better than none.
I will admit to being essentially completely ignorant of Medicare and what it will cover, but this article seems to include Medicare, and says it will cost a quarter of a million dollars over and above Medicare, basically we should all be heading for other shores.
Anyone who can afford to live in Europe should go there. Japan has a great national system and so does Taiwan.
I happen to really like Mexico, so that is where I was retiring, anyway. That I can buy into their health care system is gravy to me. If I want to use their parallel private system, I can do that, too. What its costs are, I don't know. But any option is better than a choice between the poor house/bankruptcy and going without.
I'm one of those public-teat sucking retired teachers. Money was deducted from every paycheck toward my retirement. I have Kaiser and Medicare Part B. My monthly total for this insurance is $296.20, wth yearly changes. Copays have gone up this year as well. My net pension after taxes and insurance is $1555.
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