Yep, I hate these articles that don't link to the source.
I'm guessing that this is it:
https://nationwidefinancial.com/medi...FM-14532AO.pdf
If so, the article fumbled the translation.
17% of people who have been retired less than 10 years say they wish they had waited longer to start SS.
25% of people who have been retired more than 10 years say they wish they had started later.
For the follow-up question on "Why would you start later?", 80% of responses were a generic "Wanted the largest benefit possible". No specific mention of health care.
Regarding health problems, we get a kind of odd result. For people who have been retired at least 10 years:
73% said they were able to do the things they wanted in retirement, but
40% said health problems keep them from living the retirement they expected.
Of those experiencing health problems:
67% say those problems came sooner than expected, often more than 5 years sooner.
(Similar answers for those retired less than ten years: 63%, 39%, and 85%)
The survey has no support for the claim that 61% of SS benefits go to health care costs. If the average retiree who claims at 62 gets $1,000/mo, that would convert to monthly health care costs of $600. Seems high to me.
(and also "If you have deferred, how exactly do you pay those health care costs?")