On average, Medicare beneficiaries are spending about 41% of their Social Security income on out-of-pocket health care costs, according to new research from the Kaiser Family Foundation. And half of all Medicare beneficiaries spent roughly 14% of their total income — not just from Social Security — on health care.
Why it matters: Health care is eating up more and more of everyone’s income — but that’s an especially difficult burden for seniors, who often live on fixed incomes.
The gritty details, per KFF:
- These percentages are expected to grow.
- Those expenses include premiums, cost-sharing, and spending on services Medicare doesn’t cover, such as long-term care.
- Not surprisingly, older, sicker and poorer seniors were all more likely to spend a greater share of their income on health care expenses.
Don’t forget: This is also a good reminder that while “Medicare for all” polls well as a synonym for single payer, actual Medicare for all would still leave plenty of room for out-of-pocket spending and even privately administered benefits.
Go deeper: Corporate profits have dramatically outpaced wages and health benefits since the turn of the century.