The Hidden Cost of Retiring Early

From Smartmoney.com: “Too young to qualify for Medicare and rarely covered by their employers, early retirees can face [health insurance] premiums they neither dreamed of nor planned for—often three or more times what they paid while they were working.”

“You basically can’t count on insurance remaining even mildly affordable in individual markets,”says Karen Pollitz, quoted in the article.

As the article points out, “seemingly healthy retirees are frequently surprised to learn they aren’t ‘viable,’” as insurers in the individual market routinely underwrite policies on older people, either denying them outright or charging exceptionally high premiums.