🩺Healthcare Cost Bridge Calculator
Estimate the total cost of private health coverage in the years between early retirement and Medicare eligibility at 65.
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What Is Healthcare Cost Bridge?
The healthcare cost bridge is the total amount you'll likely need to cover private health insurance premiums for the years between retiring and turning 65, when Medicare eligibility begins in the U.S.
It's one of the most underestimated costs in early retirement planning, because it doesn't show up in a typical "annual expenses" estimate the way rent or groceries do — and because premiums for self-purchased coverage tend to rise faster than general inflation.
How This Calculator Works
The calculator compounds your current estimated annual premium forward at an assumed healthcare inflation rate for each year you'll need private coverage, then sums the total.
Psychological Considerations
Healthcare cost is one of the few retirement expenses tied directly to health itself, which makes it emotionally loaded in a way grocery budgeting isn't. Some people over-save here out of health anxiety; others under-save because they don't want to think about it. Both are worth noticing as a bias rather than a forecast.
If a chronic condition or family health history is part of your picture, this is a place where getting a second, more personalized estimate (from a broker or your current insurer) is worth more than refining the inflation assumption in this calculator. The number here is a planning estimate, not a substitute for that conversation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Subsidies can meaningfully reduce this cost depending on your reported retirement income, which you control more than you might think in early retirement. Run a lower premium estimate to model a subsidized scenario.
Usually not — COBRA typically means paying the full unsubsidized premium your employer previously partially covered, often making it more expensive than a marketplace plan, though it preserves your existing provider network for up to 18 months.
Medical costs have historically outpaced general consumer inflation due to rising drug costs, administrative overhead, and an aging population — though the exact gap varies year to year.