Let’s take a break from discussing taxes and talk about health care costs – possibly the greatest threat to your retirement savings. Trigger warning: this is not good news – I recommend procuring a safe space and ice cream before reading on. However, good news will follow!
Before I go on, I urge my friends in the military, members of law enforcement, and others who will receive health care as part of their government pensions not to disregard this message as irrelevant. Because if the government has a difficult time delivering on all of its entitlements, all the while trying to service its astronomical debt, then aren’t things like Tricare, yet another government IOU, also at risk?
Information about health care costs
Costs for health care have compounded at the rate of approximately 6% annually for several years.
Multiple studies have estimated the cost of health care for retired couples as anywhere from $275,000 (2017 data, not counting nursing home or long term care) to 1 million dollars.
The Bottom Line
The Government – whether federal, state, or local, has promised us Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Tricare, pensions, housing assistance and more. While they’re not likely to become extinct, ALL of these programs are in danger of enduring increased costs to consumers, reduced benefits, or a combination of both.
Simultaneously, Americans are living longer than ever before in history, and life spans are likely to increase dramatically due to scientific advances alone.
Could this situation – longer lives, higher health care costs, a higher likelihood of needing long-term care, the government’s inability to fund its promises, and our citizens’ utter lack of preparedness for retirement – be a perfect storm?
Even if you are prepared, won’t you be asked to make sacrifices for those who are not?
You can leave it up to the government or to fate, but we think the most prudent course of action would be to hope for the best, while planning for the worst.
Contact Arieff Consulting for a free financial analysis and to discuss how you can be in control and afford long-term care in the future, without spending any money health care premiums for care you hope you’ll never need.
Additional Resources
Washington becomes the 1st state to mandate a Long-Term Care Tax. Is your state next?
If you have to pay it either way, would you prefer YOUR PLAN or the Government Plan?
