Geridoc

Geriatrician, Hospitalist, Patient Advocate, Healthcare Educator

Retirement Healthcare Cost and Inflation

Per Javier Simon in “Today’s High Inflation Will Increase Retirement Health Care Costs…Forever” published in Money on March 17, 2022.

“Record inflation isn’t just hitting Americans at the supermarket and at the pump. It’s also driving up health care costs, and the current spike will have a lasting effect on retirement medical expenses even after inflation returns to normal levels, a new study finds.

The study of HealthView Services projects that health care inflation will remain elevated at an annual 11.9% over the next two years. This means that a healthy 65-year-old couple will have to spend an additional $85,917 on lifetime medical expenses over what they would if inflation had stayed at the historic norm. For a 55-year-old couple, those figures nearly double to $160,712. And for a 45-year-old couple, the extra lifetime costs jump to $259,808, according to HeathView Services, a Danvers, Mass.-based company that provides health care cost data to financial advisors. ”


The study is alarming to everyone! For those that are already retired, they did not have time to plan for this and already healthcare premiums have gone up as will other healthcare costs. The geriatric population is one that as a country we should be taking care of as most other countries do with universal health care and other services.

For those who are not retired yet, this means lots more saving and investing to plan for these increased costs in the future…