Health Care Expense as a Percentage of Annual Expenses

[jasg]

We have been on Medicare For six years. It costs us $250/month each for Medicare + a high deductible MediGap F + the cheapest Part D Drug plan. No copays, deductible (never reached) for MediGap & Part D is ~ $2600. Generics drugs & a couple of annual office visits are not tracked.

So, the max would probably be less than $500/month if we hit the deductible.

Of more concern is that the aggregate Medicare premiums have risen 33% in six years.

 

[bluelight]

I'm 63 and Sept will be my last month of Cobra. Then I will purchase insurance off the marketplace for the rest of the year and next year. DH is 74 and on Medicare and AARP plan F.

We currently spend about 15% on medical / dental / vision, with medical premiums at a little over 1K per month. The rest for co-pays and pharmacy. The amount will go up once I'm off Cobra. We don't qualify for any subsidized plans.

 

[jollystomper]

Since retirement premiums have been 6.7% of our expenses. This includes 18 months on COBRA for 3 of us from July 2018 through December 2019.

This year for just the two of us, premiums should end up just over 10% of spending. But this is more because of the reduction in our discretionary spending due to the pandemic. If we did our "normal" spending it would be around 8%.

Family deductible is $3,000, max out of pocket is $8,000.

 

[mrfeh]

We aren't fully retired yet. When we are, we'll be too young for medicare and will have too much money coming in to qualify for subsidies.

ACA premiums/deductibles/copays will be around 35% of our annual budget.

 

[aaronc879]

HC premiums are 1.7% of expenses with significant ACA subsidy. I have no deductible and my max OOP is $1200. I have not used my HI at all this year. If I reached my max OOP then my HC costs would be 7.7% of my expected expenses and 10.3% of my expected income.

 

[jkern]

Medical costs are about 20% of essential expenses and about 10% of total standard of living cost. Age 62 with partially subsidized retired employee benefits.

 

[Green Papaya]

We retired last year and signed up for an ACA Silver Level plan with significant credit. For our family of 2, plan annual premium is 2.5% of our budget. Deductibles are 5%, and max OoP for family is 10% of our budget. Dental costs are not included.

Fortunately, we have used it only once for annual checkup. All doctor visit and lab costs are covered in the plan.

 

[GTFan]

We have been on Medicare For six years. It costs us $250/month each for Medicare + a high deductible MediGap F + the cheapest Part D Drug plan. No copays, deductible (never reached) for MediGap & Part D is ~ $2600. Generics drugs & a couple of annual office visits are not tracked.

So, the max would probably be less than $500/month if we hit the deductible.

Of more concern is that the aggregate Medicare premiums have risen 33% in six years.

I think we're going to really miss the cheap ACA plans when we hit Medicare, considering that we're only paying $68/mo. for two with a $1k deductible on a max subsisdy ACA plan.

 

[Bryan Barnfellow]

Here it is 12% of our expenses annually. We each pay for an individual insurance policy, as required by law.

-BB

 

[neihn]

I pay 20% of my annual budget for healthcare premium (12k on 60k expense budget). Too much :-(

I decided to stay with mega-corp health plan, hence the cost. If I go with ACA, it may be lower, however, it is not guarantee to be around in the future.

 

[GalaxyBoy]

This year, we are on track for about 25% of our yearly spending to be for health insurance, being unsubsidized group insurance for me, and Medicare for DW with an Advantage plan; both plans include dental and vision. We haven't been spending a lot on copays this year and our Rx's are cheap, so I didn't figure that in but it's a small percentage of the total.

OTOH, this is not a good year for this calculation. Staying home a lot, not eating out, no big or even small trips, we aren't spending even half of our safe withdrawal rate. And once I go on Medicare in about 4.5 years the insurance spending should go down.

YMMV

 

[GalaxyBoy]

Might have been useful to have made this a poll.

 

[youbet]

Our total healthcare spending for 2019 was approximately 12% of our total spending. DW is on a Medicare Advantage plan. I'm on traditional Medicare with an F Select supplement and Part D coverage.

The two categories that are a bit of a surprise to us at this stage (14 years into FIRE) are IRMAA and the cost of prescriptions despite having drug coverage. We both take some expensive drugs (Xarelto in my case) and there appears to be no such thing as a cheap Part D or Medicare Advantage policy that does a good job of covering them.

 

[Rianne]

~ 5% and want to keep it that way.

 

[Retire52]

What percentage of your annual expense is your health care premiums family plan or non - family plan? What are your out of pocket deductibles?

Currently on Cobra and my premiums are (family) 18% of my annual expenses and the potential for 7k family or 3.5k individual.

Hoping to get these costs reduced greatly as my 2 sons are done with school and transitioning to their own HC plans.

thanks to military retirement, we spend a negligible amount. about $2k a year for me, DW and two children. my 2 adult/ children are in a different plan since they aged out, but thanks to their degrees in Art and Women's Studies from top colleges, we pay a small amount to their subsidized ACA plans. I dont include their expenses bc I fantasize the day when they are on their own

 

[grayv]

thanks to their degrees in Art and Women's Studies from top colleges, we pay a small amount to their subsidized ACA plans. I dont include their expenses bc I fantasize the day when they are on their own

 

[GTFan]

I decided to stay with mega-corp health plan, hence the cost. If I go with ACA, it may be lower, however, it is not guarantee to be around in the future.

People been saying that since 2012. Still here. Move past the fear of no insurance options, we're not going back to the days where you can't get insurance because of pre-existing conditions. Doesn't matter if SC strikes down ACA (highly doubtful with current court makeup and Roberts as chief justice), there will be something to mandate guaranteed issue.

The cost of getting it may be another matter...

 

[rodi]

family of 4. 3 of us on an ACA HDHP, one on medicare with plan fprime and plan d. Total insurance is 10% of our spend.

Now add in out of pocket.... Last year wasn't too bad - about 2% of our all-in spend. Previous years have been 15% when we had multiple medical problems. Our only expensive event last year - DH was in a not-at-fault accident, was covered by the other party's insurance. The boys didn't break any bones or have any freak tumors like the amela blastoma from a few years ago.

 

[nhcycling]

I’m reading all of these replies carefully as I’m trying to ascertain what a budget might be for top of the line healthcare plan when I’m 65 and my spouse is 65.

I know we will go on Medicare and buy supplemental plans. I’ve tried the various online Medicare calculators but they want real data. Appreciate any insight. I know a lot is “it depends” what you choose, what state you live in. In general, is it $500 a month per person, $1000?

Also, What do you do for retire dental?

Thanks!