Retirement Healthcare Cost Calculator

Medical spending in retirement ranks among the largest costs people fail to plan for, and the totals can be startling. To anchor the math, this tool starts from Fidelity's 2023 Retiree Health Care Cost Estimate: $157,500 for one person retiring at 65 that year and $315,000 for a couple. Fidelity has raised the figure since; its 2026 estimate is $185,500 for a single 65-year-old, so read the results here as a low-end figure.

From that base the projection is deliberately simple. It grows the estimate by 5% a year for every year between your current age and your retirement age, which gives a single and a couple total in the dollars of your retirement year. If you retire before 65, it also shows a pre-Medicare gap at a flat $800 a month until Medicare starts at 65, on its own line rather than added to the totals. The monthly budget line spreads the single-person total evenly over the months from retirement to age 90. It does not ask about your health, your coverage or your life expectancy.

Treat the result as a planning range, not a fixed bill, because a serious illness, a shift in healthcare policy, or your own spending patterns can pull the real number well above or below it. Two gaps deserve special attention: Medicare leaves plenty uncovered through premiums, deductibles, and co-pays, so out-of-pocket spending continues throughout retirement; and long-term care, which traditional health insurance generally excludes, can dwarf everything else if the need arises.