While healthy retirees' immediate health care costs may be lowerthan their unhealthy counterparts, their extended life times willincrease total costs. These are the findings of a recent report from the Center for Retirement Research.

The Center used data from the Health and Retirement Study tocreate a simulated lifetime health and health care cost history forhouseholds at age 65. Socioeconomic status, gender and insurancecoverage were considered in the simulation.

The report found that a couple turning 65 in 2009 can expect to spend $220,000 on health care if one or both spousessuffer a chronic illness. Furthermore, 5 percent of couples canexpect to spend over $465,000. Yet, healthy couples can spendbetween $260,000 and $570,000.

Continue Reading for Free

Register and gain access to:

  • Breaking benefits news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical converage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.