How much does health spending eat away at retirement income?

Abstract

The brief's key findings are: (1) Even with Medicare coverage and ignoring long term care, retirees face sizable out-of-pocket costs for premiums, copays, and uncovered services. (2) One way to gauge this burden is to look at how much these medical costs eat into their Social Security benefits and other income. (3) After subtracting these costs, the typical retiree has only 75 percent of Social Security and 88 percent of total income left. (4) If health care costs continue to increase faster than incomes, these percentages will drop further.