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Lifetime Medical Spending of Retirees

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  • John Bailey Jones
  • Aaron Steelman

Abstract

Retirees face considerable medical expenses during their remaining lives. Model simulations suggest that although a large amount of that spending can be predicted ? based on attributes such as income, health, and marital status ? there remains significant dispersion. Households with heads who turned seventy in 1992 will incur $122,000 in medical spending on average, including out-of-pocket expenditures and Medicaid payments. But the top 5 percent of households will incur more than $300,000 in such spending. The level and dispersion of this spending diminish only slowly with age.

Suggested Citation

  • John Bailey Jones & Aaron Steelman, 2019. "Lifetime Medical Spending of Retirees," Richmond Fed Economic Brief, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, issue May.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedreb:00076
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Bertrand Achou & Philippe De Donder & Franca Glenzer & Minjoon Lee & Marie-Louise Leroux, 2023. "At Home versus in a Nursing Home: Long-term Care Settings and Marginal Utility," CIRANO Working Papers 2023s-14, CIRANO.
    2. John Bailey Jones & Aaron Steelman, 2019. "Lifetime Medical Spending of Retirees," Richmond Fed Economic Brief, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, issue May.
    3. Pablo Garcia Sanchez & Luca Marchiori & Olivier Pierrard, 2023. "Long-term care expenditures and investment decisions under uncertainty," LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES 2023006, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES).
    4. Pablo Garcia-Sanchez & Olivier Pierrard, 2023. "Uncertain Lifetime, Health Investment And Welfare," LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES 2023020, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES).
    5. Mariacristina De Nardi & Eric French & John Bailey Jones & Rory McGee, 2021. "Why Do Couples and Singles Save During Retirement?," Richmond Fed Economic Brief, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, vol. 21(09), pages 1-65, May.
    6. Wouterse, B.; & Hussem, A.; & Wong, A.;, 2018. "The effect of co-payments in Long Term Care on the distribution of payments,consumption, and risk," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 18/24, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    7. Bram Wouterse & Arjen Hussem & Albert Wong, 2022. "The risk protection and redistribution effects of long‐term care co‐payments," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 89(1), pages 161-186, March.
    8. Tatyana Koreshkova & Minjoon Lee, 2020. "Nursing Homes in Equilibrium: Implications for Long-term Care Policies," Working Papers wp414, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    9. Mariacristina De Nardi & Eric French & John Bailey Jones & Rory McGee & Rachel Rodgers, 2020. "Medical Spending, Bequests, and Asset Dynamics around the Time of Death," Economic Quarterly, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, vol. 4, pages 135-157.
    10. Mariacristina De Nardi & Eric French & John Bailey Jones & Rory McGee, 2021. "Why Do Couples and Singles Save during Retirement? Household Heterogeneity and its Aggregate Implications," NBER Working Papers 28828, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Alicia H. Munnell & Gal Wettstein & Wenliang Hou, 2022. "How best to annuitize defined contribution assets?," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 89(1), pages 211-235, March.
    12. Susann Rohwedder & Péter Hudomiet & Michael D. Hurd, 2022. "Risk of Large Medical Expenditures at Older Ages and Their Impact on Economic Well-being," Working Papers wp457, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    13. Bram Wouterse & Arjen Hussem, 2019. "The welfare effects of co-payments in long term care," CPB Discussion Paper 394, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    retirees; medical spending; elderly;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D1 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior
    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • E02 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General - - - Institutions and the Macroeconomy
    • E2 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment
    • H31 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Household

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