A $215,000 Price Tag: A 65-year-old couple looking to retire without
employer-sponsored health care will need to save $215,000 to cover medical costs
not covered by Medicare, a report published by Fidelity Investments says.
The estimated amount has increased 7.5 percent since 2006, when retirees were
expected to save $200,000 to cover health care costs. Fidelity calculated that
over the next 18 years, a 65-year-old retiree who is making $60,000 can expect
to spend 50 percent of his pretax Social Security benefit to pay for health care
expenses. These expenses include premiums, co-payments, co-insurance,
deductibles and other cost associated with Medicare health insurance and
prescription coverage.
The estimate, which Fidelity has published annually since 2002, does not
calculate the cost of retiree health care for employees who retire before they
become eligible for Medicare. Analysts predict that cost to be several times
more.
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