Health Care Costs for Retirees Equals Second Mortgage
photo by wade2tall via Flickr
Often, the costs of health care can seem abstract: we speak in the aggregate of billions and co-pays and deductibles and the labyrinth which is the “donut hole” formula for Medicare prescription drug payments. But sometimes we get to a number which instantly makes sense and allows us to have some grasp of the actual cost and the impact that health care costs can have. Fidelity Investments has just released such a number. Kaiser.org reports that
Couples Retiring This Year Need $240,000 To Cover Medical Expenses, Study Finds
A 65-year-old retired couple this year would need $240,000 on average to cover medical expenses, according to a recent study by Fidelity Investments, the AP/Long Island Newsday reports. The study assumed that the couple is covered by Medicare and has no employer-provided insurance. It also assumed that the male partner would have a life expectancy of 17 years, while the female partner would have a life expectancy of 20 years. The estimate includes Medicare deductibles, copayments and certain services that might not be covered by Medicare.
That’s out of pocket. That’s a house.
Or at least a house mortgage (not for a particularly big house here in metro New Jersey, but a house nonetheless). And to think that one would have to face that expense– equivalent to the mortgage on a whole other house–after presumably realizing (though the presumption is not as solid as it once may have been) the American dream of having fully paid off that 30 year mortgage on the “first” house– is daunting to say the least, and arguably unconscionable as part of a social compact.
Kaiser reports that
The $240,000 estimate is a 6.7% increase from last year’s projection. Since Fidelity first released its annual report in 2002, projected medical expenses have increased by 50% (AP/Long Island Newsday, 3/31).
Posts from Health Reform Watch have been cited by media sources throughout the country, including The New York Times, Washington Post, L.A. Times, Kaiser Health News, The Health Care Blog, NPR's Planet Money Blog, Duke Univ. Med. Center News, American Health Line Alerts, BusinessWeek.com, Concurring Opinions, Balkinization, The New England Journal of Medicine, Harvard's Nieman Foundation for Journalism, Las Vegas Sun, Maggie Mahar, Ezra Klein, Tom Geoghegan, and the official homepage of the Office of the Democratic Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Steny Hoyer.
