Health Care Costs Have Older, Wealthier Americans 'Terrified,' Survey Shows

Health care costs are a major concern for older Americans, even those who have money in the bank, according to a new survey.

Health care costs have even the wealthy worried.

According to a new survey commissioned by Nationwide Financial and conducted by Harris Interactive, 46 percent of people 55 or older who have assets of at least $250,000 and plan to retire by 2020 say they are "terrified" that health care costs will foul up their retirement plans and 30 percent of those already retired reported the same anxiety. A smaller proportion of soon-to-be-retired Americans, 18 percent, is "fearful" of bankruptcy because of health care costs as are 6 percent of retired people, according to the survey.

These older Americans have good reason to worry, especially since the survey reveals they have an inaccurate picture of what their health care costs will be once they retire. Respondents on average predicted health care would cost them $5,621 a year out of pocket, but expenses could be almost twice that, according to Nationwide Financial. Of well-off people planning to retire by 2020, 43 percent say they don't even know what their medical expenses will be in retirement.

“Americans -- even those who have diligently saved for their golden years -- are not prepared for the reality of health care costs in retirement and don’t really understand how Medicare works,” said John Carter, president of Nationwide Financial Distributors. Harris Interactive conducted the online survey of 1,250 older Americans for Nationwide in January.

Medicare doesn't cover residential care in nursing homes and other forms of long-term care. Survey respondents underestimate how much they'll have to pay out of pocket for other expenses, the poll shows. People planning for retirement also often don't realize they will have to pay Medicare premiums out of their Social Security benefits, USA Today reports. Individuals with incomes of $85,000 pay higher premiums for Medicare coverage of doctor visits and prescription drugs than those who make less money.

Earlier on HuffPost:

From our partners

• How To Get Away With Being Bad At Your Job - The Billfold
• The Sharing Economy - LearnVest
• Uninsured: How To Get Health Care Without Insurance - The Billfold

Comments

[Royce09]

07:24 PM on 05/24/2012

Personally I would worry about burning in, but what the heck I am sure all of them are not bad, so their an up side i suppose.

[SweetClarissa]

02:01 PM on 05/11/2012

Here again, if I sound like the proverbial broken record, then please, remove my appendix with a rusty carpet knife and greasy barbeque tongs but...and also please, correct me if I am mistaken...but if one were to seek, locate and identify the nearest 'thing' to a root cause for why our health care NON-system is such an extremely dismal failure of a runaway train at top speed on the tracks to ruin, would that sort-of root cause perhaps be GREED on the part of one or more parties, and if so, might who that/those party/parties be? Lastly: Is it, if even in but the very least, at all in any way possible that said runaway train to ruin could drag life and our country as we know it, along with it, to not just ruin but past ruin into the realm of hideously comprehensive destruction and vaporized cataclysmic obliteration? - Thank you for your time and consideration.

[zlohcuc]

01:58 AM on 05/11/2012

If you are not insured under an employers group plan , you understand the harrowing nature of the current system.I've been on a private state plan for the past two year and have seen 17% raises annually. Today I got a letter taking up my rates another 19 %. There is no recourse. The current providers are the real "death panels" ...they will bankrupt all of us if the current system is allowed to fester as is.

[bruedi]

01:50 PM on 05/10/2012

My husband works for the federal government. He and the agency he works for split (right down the middle) the cost of his health insurance. He pays MORE in health insurance premiums than he pays in federal income taxes (of course, that is partially a function of how pathetic his salary is, but still). And every year our copays and deductibles go up (and so do the premiums). And we would be considered one of the lucky ones. Our health care system is broken. We need reform now. Maybe "Obamacare" is not the way to go but don't just throw stones, come up with a better plan!

[Clay Cullum]

07:28 PM on 05/10/2012

I 'm down with something being done with healthcare, but I don't like the idea of the federal government doing it. Obamacare is obviously a first step toward socialized medicine, and if you think it's expensive now just wait 'til it's "free."

But every time someone other than Obama has submitted a plan, they get stones thrown at them! The Republicans during the healthcare debate submitted several plans, and all they got was slammed and mocked.

But anyway, good luck to you and the hubby.

[TheBluesGuy]

03:26 AM on 05/11/2012

"Obamacare is obviously a first step toward socialized medicine, and if you think it's expensive now just wait 'til it's "free.""
__________

Why is it going to be more expensive when socialized? That's not the outcome in every other civilized country... all of whom have national health care.

[Bob Metcalfe]

07:30 PM on 05/24/2012

We have socialised medicine in my country and the only thing wrong with it is that right wingnut governments keep chipping away at it. Have you any experience at ALL with it?

[Njeanous]

01:44 PM on 05/10/2012

Wealthy PATIENTS are not afraid of health care reform. Wealthy doctors and companies that over charge and defraud the government via medicare payments are the ones afraid of health care reform. They are trying to revise the Ryan plan to make it more palatable because Obama’s plan includes stream lining costs, search and destroy missions to find perpetrators of fraud and waste and if it gets through the wealthy greedy lose.

[Star2000dancer]

08:53 PM on 05/09/2012

You should all be afraid, very afraid. Not onlt is the healthcare in this country the worst and most expensive, but so is the dental care.

[szab0413]

01:42 PM on 05/10/2012

You absolutely have no idea what you are talking about. The health care in the US is the best in the world.

[Star2000dancer]

07:54 PM on 05/10/2012

The health care in the US is in the worst bottiom 3 nations in the world. And is the most expensive. Look it up at least. Don't leave stupid comments like this. At least get informed before you leave comment so far out of touch with reality.

[Davidrfunk2]

02:22 AM on 05/11/2012

BS

[SweetClarissa]

02:36 PM on 05/11/2012

Oh did you get THAT one right square on the noggin! My lawdy of out-of-pocket highway robbery! I work for, well, shall we say an employer in California whom many people aspire to work for, giving me "the best" dental coverage offered by the leading dental conspir- uh. excuse me - consortium known to this micro-melting-pot of humanity...and that amount is: [insert drum roll here]......................[insert crash of the Zildgian here] one thousand dollars per year! I know, you're thinking I'm a spoiled punk and I don't blame you for thinking that..but when one goes to smashin' numbers then stickin' 'em with brass tacks, 1K does not, as they say in the vulgate, buy squat...a chip repair and a re-do of a two-year old failing crown will, and does, eat up that 1K by end o' January...due to being short-sheeted on teeth genetics, mine are some chalky, porous, abandoned seashell grade teeth wannabes costing me roughly 6,000 clams (sorry, couldn't pun for seashell reference...so remove my canines with Jack-and-Jack: hammer and Daniels) in 2011. But dang, my dentist sure has a nice Hummer and House in the hills above, overlooking my fellow flatlanders and I. - Thanks for you patience and allowing me to vent. Have a wonderful Friday. ...I tried to close without it but ...uh, GREED much anybody?

[mstaggerlee]

12:05 PM on 05/09/2012

So health care COSTS have the wealthy "terrified", yet, somehow, they are still almost universally opposed to health care REFORM. That makes perfect sense ... NOT!

[vidtrainer110]

02:23 PM on 05/09/2012

They are terrified that "reform" means turning Medicare into a voucher program that will cost them a ton.

[brt929]

12:53 AM on 05/10/2012

If the Republicans get into power, I think it is guaranteed they will get a voucher program.  So why are supporting the politicians that want to give them vouchers?

[szab0413]

01:44 PM on 05/10/2012

NOBODY is against reform. Everybody is against the government running it. The health care industry would reform itself if government and the lawyers would get out of it.

[abennettnyc]

02:57 PM on 05/10/2012

this is one of the dumbest remarks i've seen on here - and that's saying a lot.

[TheBluesGuy]

03:29 AM on 05/11/2012

What are you smoking? And do you have a prescription?

[Stanley Bonk]

11:55 AM on 05/09/2012

I'm going to irritate a lot of my friends with this idea, but let me put it our there anyway.
What if a prospective medical student were given two choices, pay for your own medical training or enter a program to become a government doctor and have the state foot your medical school bills. Academically, they would all go to the same medical school, and take the same courses, do the same internships, the same residency programs, take the same board examinations, do the same fellowships. On completing their education, the students that paid their own way could go where they wanted and make whatever compensation their skill could demand. The students who had the government pay their way wold have to pledge to work for the government at some previously established level of compensation that would be guaranteed for as long as they worked. People with adequate means could receive medical treatment for pay wherever they liked. The less well-off would go to a government facility and be treated by a public physician. Both doctors would would have the same skills and the same competency. The private physician could change what he wanted for his services, and the public doctor would treat on the government's dime. How would that work?

[cafebeege]

12:49 PM on 05/09/2012

I'm older now and getting out of touch with medical schools (other than being the patient), however it seems to me at some point in years past there was a program where med students received some sort of "credit" towards tuition by serving after graduation, in underserved areas for a period of time anyway. Didn't have to be for the rest of their life. That would be a good compromise.

[angel879]

01:34 PM on 05/09/2012

Doctors and teachers are forgiven much of their student loans for working in under served areas

[Star2000dancer]

08:56 PM on 05/09/2012

That's really pretty much how it is anyway. Why do you think our health care system is ranked one of the worst in the world?

[BaPef Amheh]

11:45 AM on 05/10/2012

Not really, government doesn't run the hospitals they are ran by mega corporations that are for profit industries which as it is their duty to their share holders to maximize profits by law. In practice that would translate to having to treat as few people as possible(minimize costs) while making as much money as possible. The health care industry should be nonprofit by law and it would resolve the spiraling costs problem.

[Stanley Bonk]

11:40 AM on 05/09/2012

Why oh why oh why didn't more Americans stand up and demand single payer healthcare? It's not a new idea. Otto von Bismarck pushed the legislation into law in Germany at the end of our civil war. Every other developed nation in the world has some version of it. Couldn't congress have sent a couple of trained observers to places like Canada, Great Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Holland, Denmark, Norway, or Switzerland to see how they did it, what the advantages and disadvantages are, and then come back, pool their experiences and observations, and come up with some kind of way for us to finance healthcare for everyone as a right of citizenship, and not a privilege for the wealthy?

[angel879]

01:38 PM on 05/09/2012

I believe one of the issues many have with healthcare for everyone is that no matter how united people here pretend that we are, equality in any aspect of life is not one of our strong points here in the U.S.A. Americans don't want to so called "pay for someone else". That is the reason this country is not making the progress we should be considering all the resources we have, because we are divided against everyone for some reason or another

[BaPef Amheh]

11:49 AM on 05/10/2012

Its the one for one and all for none attitude that has been fostered over the last 30 years since the concept of trickle down economics came into play.

[szab0413]

01:48 PM on 05/10/2012

Because that single payer would be the government. What government run program is not currently bankrupt or going there quickly? Government is not an efficient use of resources.

[TheBluesGuy]

03:38 AM on 05/11/2012

"What government run program is not currently bankrupt or going there quickly? Government is not an efficient use of resources."
__________

szabo0413, your regurgitation of right wing talking points is laughable. Take health care, for example. There is no more efficient administration of health care than the Vetran's Administration. They run their system with about 2 percent overhead for administration. A close second is Medicare, with a 3 percent overhead.

Now, name a single for profit company that can even get close to only 20 percent cost of administration. The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare to you under informed folks) caps the amount of profit at 20 percent, because most for profit companies were running closer to 33-35 percent.

[JHBH]

11:24 AM on 05/09/2012

An old classmate recently died from cancer. Thanks to his union contract, the cost of his health treatments was covered (almost completely). He kept track of the medical bills anyway, and they totaled over $600,000 in the first year and a half of treatments. Without the benefit of his union contract his family would have been wiped out financially. Most people in this country are not fortunate enough to have health benefits like he did.
So people do have good reason to be terrified of high medical costs.

[SweetClarissa]

02:48 PM on 05/11/2012

as well as good reason to respect, value, support and believe in Unions! Thank you! When was the last time you heard about [gazillionaire sociopathic CEO's name goes here] and [gigantic, faceless, omnipotent, very-non-human corporate entity name goes here] picking up the tab on a 600K cancer bill?...uh...like....never?

[SweetClarissa]

02:53 PM on 05/11/2012

and speaking of unions and corporate thingies...I once read a very good book about just that sort of stuff..."Pigs at the Trough" or sumpin' like dat...

[moral without religion]

10:58 AM on 05/09/2012

And why would the jerks in Washington care as long as they get unlimited health care at our expense?
Make them pay for their own healthcare and lets see how they like the racket of supplemental plans that are impossible to compare to each other because they are all so confusing and written to be so.

[angel879]

01:40 PM on 05/09/2012

Yes they have the nerve to deny government sponsered health care to the citizens but all their benefits are government funded and even when the cost goes up, the government contributes more not like us who have to pay the difference when our insurance premiums increase. How come more people don't scream about this?

[Taterhead McGobstopper]

10:40 AM on 05/09/2012

Someone who has $250K saved for the rest of their retired lives is NOT wealthy. They're simply not hurting as badly as most. But a medical catastrophe could wipe them out as easily as anyone else.

[vidtrainer110]

02:27 PM on 05/09/2012

Not to put to fine a point on it, but 250k is chump change to retire on. I wouldn't consider retiring with such a small amount unless I had a defined pension on top of it that paid a guaranteed income.

[Taterhead McGobstopper]

05:58 PM on 05/09/2012

Exactly.

[nothingchanges]

10:33 AM on 05/09/2012

"YOUR MONEY OR YOUR LIFE"

That phrase USED to be associated with Highway Robbery.

Now it's just "business as usual" in the medical profession.

There are any number of systems of healthcare delivery around the world, that work better than ours, at less than half the cost. Yet the American people were denied these alternatives by their own Congress.

Why?

Because in America, profit is more important than people. And our Congress works for the "special interests" groups that fund their campaigns, over the interests of the people who vote for them.

You want health care reform that works?

Then FIRST we need a government that works for US.

Campaign finance reform, get the money out, and make congress work the way it was intended. It's not only the logical thing to do, it's the right thing to do.

How often does THAT happen?

[brt929]

05:10 PM on 05/10/2012

There are any number of systems of healthcare delivery around the world, that work better than ours, at less than half the cost. Yet the American people were denied these alternatives by their own Congress.

Don't forget, that half this country is brain-washed by the insurance and pharmaceutical lobbies to believe that any change to our health care system would be a bad thing.  

Republicans especially, are happy to believe that there is nothing wrong with the idea that people are falling through the system.

[thejazz]

10:07 AM on 05/09/2012

Start hiding your dollars now in an offshore account. Preferably in a country with a health care system that works. Then when you retire. Move there.

[Cworldly]

10:02 AM on 05/09/2012

Interesting how we hear single payer is a socialist driven program but our congress and most high level govt. employees have it. The hypocrisy is as high as Mt. Everest. The US is the only industrialized country in the world which spends almost 20% of its GNP on healthcare. We have one of the most inefficient systems in the world and we seem not to care. Fifty percent of all expenditures come from 5% of the people during the last six months of their lives. We treat dogs better than those in intensive care units who've basically turned into vegetables. If wars don't bankrupt us, healthcare will, no doubt. Add to this the epidemic of diabetes 2, the obese and you have a cocktail of gargantuan proportions for the fiscal demise of this once great country.

[angel879]

01:42 PM on 05/09/2012

F&F..well said