Stop health care costs from ruining your retirement

With Maryland offering 16% lower healthcare costs than Utah, Colorado, Oregon and Minnesota, it’s a beneficial location for retirees to live. Yet health care isn’t entirely free of charge. Retired individuals are required to pay partial amounts of Medicare part B and D that cover prescription drugs and some specific doctor visits. The state’s all-payer insurance model allows costs to stay reasonably low by charging Medicare patients and those with private health insurance at the same price, although costs do vary between healthcare facilities.

Despite the recent debates about our health care policies, one thing is absolutely certain; whether it is Obamacare or Trumpcare, health care costs are going to affect health care, if you’re looking to save money, then it’s important to plan ahead and understand what your Medicare covers, before doing anything else. Here are some simple guidelines that will definitely help you out.

Arrange for a special health care fund

One of the best ways to deal with the increasing costs of healthcare is by creating your own retirement healthcare fund. You can create a savings account especially focused on your healthcare (HSA), and the contributions you make here are going to be tax-deductible. In addition to this, you’ll also be able to withdraw the money tax-free at any point in time in the year.

You can make the maximum tax benefits by paying for your recent medical expenses with cash, and by letting your money grow in the HSA account. If you manage to preserve your medical bills, you can easily get money from the account for any legitimate expense since you’ve opened your HSA. This can be immediately after you open the account or several years down the line. In any case, it’s going to save you a lot of money and help you deal with health care in a better and more efficient way.

Avoid unnecessary surcharges

The AAA Credit reports that the typical American’s credit score is 695. However, Baltimore is significantly lagging behind other states with a score of 621. In case you’re still looking for ways, yet another excellent way to do this is by avoiding the unnecessary surcharges from Medicare. While most people tend to ignore these surcharges because they feel that they aren’t earning enough, you can be easily considered for the charge if you frequently withdraw money from your IRA and 401 (K).

At this point, one of the best ways to avoid the high cost is by creating a tax-free stash of money. You can do this by contributing to your HAS and ROTH even before you start a Medicare plan. Once you do this, you’ll be able to tap into these accounts for several years before your AGI finally threatens to increase the threshold. In addition to this, you can also convert your money from a conventional IRA account to ROTH over an extensive period of time.

Get The Most Out of Retirement

Besides these mentioned guidelines, here are a couple of more ideas to save the most from your retirement costs.

• Invest in stock funds instead of conventional money market funds.
• Try using a supplemental insurance.
• Have a good long-term care plan.

Follow these guidelines and save as much as you can during and prior to your retirement. Always make it a point to estimate your Medicare costs, save a significant amount in your special healthcare account and ROTH account. This will not only cut down on your costs, but also help you save a lot of money in the long term.