Estimate retirement healthcare costs including Medicare premiums, Medigap, Part D, and out-of-pocket expenses over retirement horizon.
The guide
Medicare covers a lot, but the gaps compound over a retirement that can last 20 or 30 years. This tool estimates what healthcare will actually cost over that horizon: the Part B premium, a Medigap supplement, Part D drug coverage, and the deductibles and copays you expect to pay, with an inflation rate applied to every year and the yearly figures summed into a lifetime total. The surprise most people hit is not the total itself but what sits outside it: Medicare does not cover custodial long-term care, so a year of nursing home care can dwarf this entire number.
A concrete input and expected output from the current implementation.
Input
Age 65, 20-year horizon. Part B at the standard premium ($185/month, the 2025 rate), Medigap Plan G at $200/month, Part D at $45/month, $2,500/year of out-of-pocket costs, medical-cost growth 5% per year.
Expected output
Year 1 costs $7,660 (Part B $2,220, Medigap $2,400, Part D $540, out-of-pocket $2,500). Each later year grows 5%, so the final year, age 84-85, is about $19,400, and the 20-year total is about $253,300 - roughly 1.65 times the $153,200 the same figures would total with no growth.
Year 1 is the three annualized premiums plus out-of-pocket spending: 2,220 + 2,400 + 540 + 2,500 = 7,660. Each later year is that figure grown by 5% per year, so the last year is 7,660 x 1.05^19 = 19,356, and the total is the sum of the 20 grown years: 7,660 x (1.05^20 - 1) / 0.05 = 253,285.
You enter the monthly Part B, Medigap, and Part D premiums, an annual out-of-pocket figure for deductibles and copays, a retirement horizon in years, and a growth rate for medical costs. The tool annualizes the premiums, adds the out-of-pocket figure, applies the growth rate to each year of the horizon, and sums the years into one lifetime total. The calculation runs entirely in the browser; nothing is uploaded.
The estimate covers Part B, a Medigap supplement, Part D coverage, and the out-of-pocket costs you entered. It does not include custodial long-term care, which Medicare never pays for, and it uses the premiums you enter: standard Part B is the same for everyone below the IRMAA income thresholds, while Medigap and Part D premiums vary by insurer, state, and age, so your plans may cost more or less.
No to both. Medicare excludes most dental, vision, and hearing care, and it does not cover custodial long-term care at all, so neither is in the estimate unless you folded them into the out-of-pocket figure. Budget them separately: savings earmarked for care, long-term care insurance, or a separate dental or vision plan. The estimate reflects Medicare premiums plus the routine out-of-pocket costs you entered.
Because today's coverage is usually subsidized by an employer and this estimate is not: you pay the full Medigap and Part D premiums plus out-of-pocket costs on top of Part B, and the growth rate compounds across the whole horizon. At 5% a year, that adds about 65% to a 20-year total.
The example and behavioral notes were checked against the browser implementation. Standards and primary references below define the relevant format, formula, or platform behavior.
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