not for us. i retired at 55 so health insurance for me for the next 10-yrs was an issue. i was lucky as i could remain on my employer's group policy until i turned 65 but had to pay the premium. my projections indicated we could afford to pay both our mortgage and the premium but it didn't leave a lot of daylight and i didn't want to cut it that close. we always wanted to walk into retirement debt free and had been paying extra $ each month on the mortgage for years to do just that but now making that happen was a priority.
You made extra principal payments on your mortgage leading up to your age 55 retirement. If you had instead invested that money and not made extra principal payments you would have had plenty of $ to continue making your mortgage payment AND pay for your health insurance. The math works both ways. Am I missing something?