Retirees Are Worried About the Cost of Healthcare – and Who Can Blame Them?

Rising premiums, deductibles, co-pays, supplemental coverage and out of pocket costs hurt

Alicia H. Munnell 

The 10-percent increase in Medicare Part B premiums for 2026 has reignited concerns about how much Social Security and total income people will have after they cover their out-of-pocket (OOP) health spending.  Fortunately, my colleague Matt Rutledge has updated earlier research to answer precisely that question.

Even though retirees ages 65+ have Medicare, they still face considerable costs. In the case of Medicare Part A, which covers inpatient hospital care and is financed primarily by payroll taxes, beneficiaries face cost-sharing. Medicare Part B, which covers physician and outpatient hospital services, and Part D, which covers prescription drugs, are partly financed by premiums and include further cost-sharing. 

Because Medicare’s OOP costs are often substantial, many enrollees buy supplemental coverage, which may include additional premiums. Finally, many services, such as dental, vision, and hearing, are not covered by Medicare.

To identify total out-of-pocket healthcare costs, Matt used the 2018, 2020, and 2022 Health and Retirement Study (HRS). The sample included respondents who were ages 65+ and were receiving both Social Security and Medicare. In terms of expenditures, the HRS captures prescription drugs, special facilities, surgery, and medical visits to doctors, hospitals, and dentists. It also includes self-reported premiums paid for Medicare Part D, Medicare Advantage, and private supplemental plans. Medicare Part B income-related premiums were estimated based on the individual’s income. 

The central finding was the percentage of Social Security left after paying out-of-pocket health costs and how those results changed over the three surveys. As shown in Figure 1, the median percentage remaining in 2022 after medical OOP spending was 71 percent for Social Security benefits and 88 percent for total income. And these percentages were virtually unchanged over the three surveys.

In other words, OOP takes a big chuck of retirees’ resources, and the 10-percent increase in Medicare Part B premium suggests no relief on the horizon.

Diet rich in tomatoes cuts skin cancer in half in mice

Discovery builds on previous evidence of cancer-prevention benefits

Ohio State University

Daily tomato consumption appeared to cut the development of skin cancer tumors by half in a mouse study at The Ohio State University.

The new study of how nutritional interventions can alter the risk for skin cancers appeared online in the journal Scientific Reports.

It found that male mice fed a diet of 10 percent tomato powder daily for 35 weeks, then exposed to ultraviolet light, experienced, on average, a 50 percent decrease in skin cancer tumors compared to mice that ate no dehydrated tomato.