Although employers pick up a large part of monthly healthcare premiums, workers still need to kick in a fair amount. For workers aged 50 and 64, that can be as much as 10% of their gross income on health insurance, according to a new brief published by AARP Public Policy Institute.
The brief is the first in a planned series exploring the issue of high healthcare costs and their effect on adults aged 50 to 64.
Healthcare costs reached a historic high in 2023, according to Willis Towers Watson’s Global Medical Trends Survey, as the McKnight’s Business Daily previously reported. And healthcare premiums are higher in midlife, as adults begin to face higher rates of chronic conditions and are more likely to need healthcare services than younger adults, according to the AARP brief.
“These high costs are making healthcare unaffordable for many midlife adults and forcing many to make difficult choices about their care (e.g., skipping appointments, stretching prescriptions to last longer) or go into medical debt,” the organization said.
The AARP Public Policy Institute noted that healthcare costs have risen greatly over the past 50 years or so, disproportionately affecting adults in their 50s and early 60s.
“Notably, improvements in health outcomes have not risen alongside the growth in spending,” the institute said.
Also, Americans are living longer, so they have more time to develop chronic conditions that might require care. Because of greater health needs, midlife adults are more likely than members of other age groups to pay out-of-pocket costs. In 2021, 83% of privately insured midlife adults had to pay healthcare costs out of pocket, according to the policy brief.
Medical debt, therefore, can be burdensome in midlife, the report stated. In 2022, according to the brief, 7.2 million midlife adults had medical debt; 20% of them carried debt of more than $10,000 for their care or a family member’s care.
State and federal governments policies could reduce the effects of increasing healthcare costs. Specifically, according to the institute, legislators could address high healthcare costs in ways that directly tackle both spending on and spending by midlife adults by monitoring prices, improving transparency, addressing inequities in healthcare and leveraging technology.
“Without reform, midlife adults may continue to see more of their income go to healthcare
costs. For some, rising costs may prevent them from receiving care altogether,” the AARP said. “It is important that policymakers consider ways to constrain healthcare costs and lift the cost burden on midlife adults.”
