Posted on 05/16/2013 1:43:45 AM PDT by Daffynition
Planning for retirement usually means budgeting for food, travel and other expenses. Don’t forget to include $220,000 for health care costs.
That’s how much the average 65-year-old couple will spend on medical expenses through their retirement, according to the latest estimates from Fidelity Investments.
If you’ve set your sights on retiring earlier, plan on squirreling away an even bigger savings pile. The average couple hoping to retire at 55 will spend $744,800 on out-of-pocket health costs if they both live to age 85, according to a separate study released Wednesday by the Society of Actuaries.
That’s if you’re relatively healthy later in life. Those averages don’t include the cost of treating chronic diseases like cancer or heart disease.
(Excerpt) Read more at lifeinc.today.com ...
If they can force everyone ELSE to do their damn bidding why can’t they make major medical service providers charge reasonable and affordable rates for their services? I mean 5 - 7,000 for an ER visit, $2,000 a day plus all the other medical fees involved, $50K - $250K for a heart attack?! C’mon!
One medical emergency nowadays can bankrupt you. It’s outrageous how the medical service providers charge many more times the amount that you would pay if you paid in cash. I understand why they began doing; people weren’t paying their bills. But I think they’ve gone overboard and fraud is rampant now.
Obamacare will ensure that people do not outlive their usefulness to the government, Nevertheless, those are still probably very low estimates.
Two words to lower medical costs,”Tort Reform”.
ping
I’d say the insurance industry plays a pretty big role in the cost of medical care. Fifty years ago medical insurance was not a right. It still isn’t a right today, but you couldn’t prove that point.
They don't WANT to rein in costs...they want everything the middle class owns. You see, we peasants own too much Ag land & other property for their taste; it really puts a damper on what they are able to accomplish.
This is a scheme to force everyone but the well-connected to divest themselves of all assets simply to pay for what will by then be sub-par medical treatment. If that were not the case, you would see efforts to address the "cost" side of the equation...which is wildly out of control.
I am quite happy that someone is finally saying something about it, as I believe they were really hoping to catch everyone off-guard 10-20 years from now. Keep an eye on the thieves; they will shortly be trying to pass a law with a very long "look-back" period for trusts and other asset-protection moves.
So, retired people expect to pay for food lodging and travel, but are SHOCKED they will have to pay for health care in the 20 or so years of life when they will need the most health care?
I was raised by decent people, so I have had insurance since I was 22 years old. In the 25 years since then, I have paid well over $200,000 into the health care system...PLUS Medicare taxes...and I have used far less than $10,000 in services.
So, in twenty years, when I am of retirement age, I will likely have paid yet another $400,000 in just PREMIUMS to this protection racket. Meanwhile, the other side of the racket has used the money to pay for the care of illegal aliens, drug addicts, brain-dead gang bangers, moron uninsured 20-somethings drunks who wrap their car around a tree, and various and assorted other human debris.
Now, on top of that, we are told that we should have planned for an extra "Mil" or so in the retirement account after they have WASTED OUR MONEY? Really?
That’s only the people who are lucky enough to have a doc to go to.
Supplemental Insurance - PLAN “F”... pays the excess beyond medicare.
Call all the large insurers because by law they all have to cover the SAME minimum.... BUT they can charge different monthly amounts for the exact same coverage. And don’t get talked into one of the cheaper policies... the ‘cheaper ones’ will cost more in the long run. Plan “F”... they’re all required to offer it.
CEO of of United Health Care Group. Turns out the guy is making about $102,000 per hour. At one point a few years ago his salary alone accounted for $1 in every $700 spent on healthcare in America.
Stephen Hemsley, received $101,959,866 in total compensation in 2009. No one is worth that much.
Has anyone done the math on this before obamacare?
“If they can force everyone ELSE to do their damn bidding why can’t they make major medical service providers charge reasonable and affordable rates for their services? I mean 5 - 7,000 for an ER visit, $2,000 a day plus all the other medical fees involved, $50K - $250K for a heart attack?! C’mon!”
One reason is Medicaid which is not paying the full cost of care. Hospitals raise the rates on everyone else because they must take whatever the government decides to pay for Medicaid patients and then cover the rest by overcharging everyone else. It is a hidden tax on the rest of us to fund the welfare state. Consider the millions of illegals without health coverage of any kind who use the emergency room for primary care.
A second reason the amount of elaborate new medical construction occurring all of this country in the last 20 years. Hospitals used to be sterile and utilitarian buildings. Today there are fabulous new buildings with high ceilings, beautiful open public spaces, and expensive artwork. The cost of constructing these monuments shows up in the hospital bill as well as the higher cost of heating, cooling and maintaining these spaces. There is also the cost of buying and maintaining hundreds of millions of dollars of specialized equipment in the modern hospital.
A third reason is the cost of administration. Armies of billing clerks and administrators are required to navigate today’s maze of insurance and government rules regarding billing rates as well as what can and cannot be charged to insurance. Each insurance organization’s rules are different and every item used by the patient down to the last pill and bandage must be tracked and accounted for. Whereas in the hospital of 50 years ago most of the labor costs were people directly providing medical services, today’s hospital bills include the cost of supporting huge bureaucracies.
It would not surprise me if less than 20% of the average hospital bill is directly attributable to the real cost direct cost of providing the service. Going to the hospital is like staying at the Ritz Carlton when you travel instead of the Hampton Inn. In today’s health care system the Hampton Inn choice is not available.
When the economy is not run by the state, you can offer to pay a CEO what ever you want as long as you're the none that formed the corp. When other people form a corp like UHCG, then it's none of your business what they decide to pay and it only concerns the CEO and the stock holders.
At one point a few years ago his salary alone accounted for $1 in every $700 spent on healthcare in America.
No it didn't. It accounted only for money spent purchasing services from the UHCG.
Actually my daughter's ER visit in Austin TX was only about a $K or two. Contrast that to the $5 my wife paid for an ER visit in Panama. That included meds and seeing a (US educated) doctor.
People have choices, and retiring in Latin America changes medical costs a lot.
I pay car insurance every year, when do I get to stop paying? Ditto house, wind flood and an umbrella policy.
YOU don’t understand the basic concept of insurance.
Not getting these numbers at all.
The wife and I have bc&bs advantage which is costing us the $96 normallr taken from our SS to pay for part of Medicare. iow we are paying nothing out of pocket at all for this coverage and in fact I am getting $20 more monthly because I didn’t take the drug plan.
Dr co pay is $30 , Specialist is 75. Recently my wife fell, went to emergency room, had a scan done because she hit her head andwas judged ok and sent home. Total bill was $7400. We paid $50 for ER and $75 for the specialist. Total out of pcket was $125.
How does this sort f thing translate to $20,000 annually for a retired person?
My guess is that the operative word here is 'average'.
We're probably looking at 90% of the people paying say, $500/yr while the other 10% enjoys deluxe VIP care for $195K/year. The average comes out to exactly $20,000/year.
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