Official websites use .gov
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
What happens to health benefits after retirement?
What happens to health benefits after retirement?
- Collection:
- Health Policy and Services Research
- Series Title(s):
- Issue brief (Center for Retirement Research)
- Contributor(s):
- Johnson, Richard W.
Boston College. Center for Retirement Research. - Publication:
- Chestnut Hill, MA : Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, c2007
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- Health Benefit Plans, Employee -- economics
Insurance Benefits -- economics
Retirement -- economics
United States - Genre(s):
- Technical Report
- Abstract:
- Because most workers receive health benefits from their employers, retirement often disrupts health insurance coverage. Some employers offer health insurance to retirees, but many firms are cutting retiree health benefits by passing more costs to retirees or eliminating benefits altogether. Few alternatives exist. Private nongroup coverage is generally quite expensive, and few people in their 50s and early 60s qualify for publicly financed benefits. Many workers who cannot obtain retiree benefits from their own employers or their spouses' employers delay retirement to age 65, when Medicare coverage begins. This brief examines the availability and cost of health insurance coverage at ages 55 to 64 and changes in coverage after retirement. Today most workers with employer health benefits retain their coverage when they retire early, although their required premium contributions have increased sharply over the past ten years. In the future, however, steady declines in the share of younger workers with access to retiree health benefits may jeopardize income security for the next generations of retirees.
- Copyright:
- Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further use of the material is subject to CC BY license. (More information)
- Extent:
- 9 p.
- Illustrations:
- Illustrations
- NLM Unique ID:
- 101469237 (See catalog record)
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101469237