Healthy? Health Care will cost you more in Retirement

Medical costs are the largest single expense for many retirees and healthy people can expect that there health expenses will be higher than for people who are less and therefore don't live as long. While this seems counter intuitive because, for younger people, good health means low expenses compared to similar age people who smoke are overweight have diabetes or other health problems. But the flipside of the coin is healthy people live longer and the longer you live the more health care expenses you will incur, something to factor into your retirement planning.
"In preparing the numbers, Empower included premiums for Medicare parts B and D and private Medicare-supplement insurance, as well as out-of-pocket costs for expenses that aren’t covered by Medicare, including medical, dental, hearing and vision care. The projections use inflation rates that vary by health condition, to better reflect the future costs of the drugs and treatments those patients use, and are based on medical costs in Massachusetts" according to W. Van Harlow, director of research at the Empower Institute, which is sponsored by Empower Retirement, a division of Great-West Financial that administers $440 billion in retirement plans. Reported by Anne Tergesen, writing in The Wall Street Journal, Feb. 10, 2016.