Retirement: My real-world retirement healthcare cost
(I'm trying to transition some things to my home PC. Hopefully I haven't left anyone out and this mail gets delivered to everyone.)
I've often wondered how health-care costs compare between employment and retirement. I assumed pre-Medicare insurance costs would be high, but I also wondered how the cost would change when I moved to Medicare. Over-65 retirees I've asked about these costs have been somewhat vague with answers. I understand why - there are a handful of numbers to keep in mind.
I've attached a PDF from a spreadsheet I did today. Here's the summary with some notes and warnings.
While employed, the cost for my spouse and I is $420/month.
My spouse is 3 years younger than I am. Therefore she will go on Corning retiree healthcare. We've always been on the more expensive PPO plan and decided to stay with it.
My immediate "1st month on Medicare" cost will be $851/month. This is after deducting the Corning RRA.
Once my wife turns 65, the cost goes down to $594/month. This is after applying the 2nd Corning RRA reduction. WARNING: I did not attempt to predict any of these costs 3 years in the future. I used only "today cost". The cost will be more than $594/month for sure. I'm also not sure if my wife will end of on Plan N or Plan G (higher cost).
Notice the cost of my Part D drug plan. It's quite high, and this bothers me quite a bit. There were 3 AARP/UHC choices here:
- The high deductible low cost option, which wouldn't appear to pay anything in my case.
- A plan locking me into using Walgreens. I wasn't sure I wanted to do that, but I may have to re-visit this to reduce my Part D cost.
- The all-in flexible plan, which I chose.
So to answer my own question - Medicare with a traditional supplemental plan will not be less expensive than when I was employed.