How to Save on Health Care Costs in Retirement

Here's a Yahoo interview with personal finance author and radio host Jennifer Openshaw where she lists some thoughts on how to save on health care costs in retirement (read down the page a bit). Her suggestions:

First, look for a group plan through a professional organization. There are a wide variety of member associations offering group health insurance to their constituents. If you're not a member of a professional organization, it may be worth it to join for those benefits.

Second, check your spouse's health insurance. Often, a spouse can start his or her own venture thanks to the health insurance the other spouse enjoys through an employer.

Also, don't forget COBRA. Federal laws require most employers to offer their employees access to COBRA for 18 months after leaving the job. The caution here is that COBRA only grants you access to the group policies -- you are still required to pay the full premiums. Those COBRA premiums may be more than what you'd pay on the individual market.

Finally, health savings accounts, or HSAs, are a new tax-friendly vehicle aimed at encouraging people to save for their own health-care costs. You invest pretax money in a health savings account and all the money you take out of that account -- including your untaxed contributions and any gains you earn on those savings -- comes out tax-free as long as you spend the money on health-care costs.

Yep, we've only seen the beginning of the "how to save money on health care during retirement" money saving suggestions. This thing is going to keep growing for the foreseeable future. Think this might be part of the answer?

For more thoughts on retirement and health care, see Healthcare Costs Forcing Baby Boomers into Bankruptcy and The Biggest Financial Issue in Retirement: Healthcare.

And for some extra ways to save on health care costs (and all other costs as well), see 301 Saving Money Posts -- Hundreds of Ideas on How to Save Money.

Comments

[P.A. Garner]

Everybody talks about health care costs but there is no mention about dental costs which increase as you age.
1 crown is about $900.00 + and an implant for 1 tooth is about $3-5000.00. Perio could be approx. $1-2000.00

[Pat Veretto]

It almost makes me want a national health care system. We're not taking care of our elderly very well, are we?

[Ciji]

Sorry, but COBRA can be up to 4-5 times more expensive than purchasing your own insurance. It's best to shop around while you are currently employed and covered then weigh your options.