The Changing Landscape of Retirement Healthcare

The state of health care in the United States continues to be one of the most controversial issues of the day. Many things are starting to change in response to the Affordable Care Act, for example, as are the ways that we approach health care in general.

By the same token, more attention is being paid to how senior citizens are dealing with their retirement years from a financial perspective. With such a large number of baby boomers entering retirement over the past few years, the issues surrounding healthcare during retirement are becoming increasingly significant.

Here are some of the ways that the landscape of retirement healthcare is changing.

Even public sector employees who were promised a particular level of retirement benefits are finding that their benefits were inadequately funded. With many cities facing serious fiscal shortfalls (and in some cases even bankruptcy), these retirees may find themselves having to file lawsuits and fight in order to receive the benefits they were promised.

Many believe that the growth of the Medicare and Medicaid programs is unsustainable, and that significant changes will be necessary in order to ensure that the programs can remain in place in some form for future retirees. Despite the economics of the situation, however, there is a great deal of political will behind not cutting benefits for those who are already on the program. It’s likely that some type of change is necessary, but it’s far from clear as to what that change will be.