The potentially devastating impact that health care costs can have on retirement savings is a huge source of anxiety for Americans on the verge of leaving the workforce.
That's according to a Bankrate poll – of 1,003 adults in the continental U.S. – that found 28 percent of respondents said high medical expenses is their biggest financial worry about retirement.
Twenty-three percent cited fears of their savings running out and 18 percent said they feared an inability to pay their daily expenses when retired. The latter two scenarios could, of course, be brought on by high medical costs.
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The closer those polled were to retirement, the more likely they were to cite health care as a retirement fear. One-third of respondents over the age of 50 said they were worried about expensive illnesses or injuries, and over a quarter of people from ages 30 to 49 expressed those same worries.
The financial impact of long-term care, such as living in a nursing home, was a particularly big concern.
The study also found, surprisingly, that the highest-income households (those with more than $75,000) were more concerned with health care expenses during retirement than the general population.
According to Fidelity Investments, a couple who retired in 2014 would need an estimated $220,000 to cover health care costs while retired.
The Bankrate study did indicate that millennials were less concerned specifically about health care costs in retirement as opposed to older populations, probably just because they're young and still healthy.
People 18 to 29 cited medical costs as their main retirement worry only half as much as those over the age of 65. But the same age group was twice as likely as those over the age of 65 to cite running out of money during retirement as their prime retirement worry. Thirty-three percent of young people cited running out of money during retirement as their main concern, while only 16 percent of those above 65 did.
A full one-third of those polled said they are currently unable to save for retirement due to only having enough money to meet their day-to-day obligations, and that about one-in-four people do not believe that they will receive anything from Social Security by the time they retire.
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