Retiree Healthcare Expenses Expected to Hold Steady on Drug Cost Outlook
Key Takeaways
- Fidelity estimates average lifetime healthcare costs for 65-year-olds retiring this year will hold steady from 2022.
- Coming limits on out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs are expected to help keep retiree expenses down.
- Seniors on Medicare could still anticipate significant medical costs.
In what could be some good news for those expecting to retire soon, estimated average lifetime healthcare costs for 65-year-olds retiring this year didn’t change from last year, according to Fidelity Investments.
Fidelity’s “Retiree Health Care Cost Estimate” showed a 65-year-old retiring this year and enrolled in Medicare Parts A, B and D could expect to spend an average $157,500 in healthcare and medical expenses throughout retirement.
Fidelity noted that number remained the same as in 2022 because of anticipated limits to out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs which take effect in 2025.
Hope Manion, senior vice president and chief actuary at Fidelity Workplace Consulting, noted that while this year’s outlook was a “welcome reprieve from a decade of increasing healthcare costs,” retirees should still prepare for “significant costs above and beyond what Medicare covers.”
