Three Big Medical Costs That Retirees Often Underestimate
Ray Loewe, an 83-year-old retiree in Lancaster, PA., spent his career as a financial planner guiding people through the complexities of preparing for retirement.
But it wasn’t until he was well into his own retirement and switched to a concierge medical practice that charges an annual fee for more-personalized care that he learned a hard truth: He had significantly underestimated the cost of healthcare.
Americans tend to go into retirement in relatively good health and well aware they will pay premiums for such things as Medicare, supplemental Medicare insurance and Medicare drug plans and even long-term-care insurance. One widely used estimate for such healthcare costs—from financial-services titan Fidelity—pegs them at $330,000 for the average couple throughout retirement, or $165,000 for an individual, and those figures don’t include long-term-care insurance.