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Women, Retirement, and Health Care Costs

According to a 2012 survey¹ by Nationwide Financial, women are more likely than men to underestimate the amount they’ll need for health care costs in retirement. This is especially troubling do to the unique challenges women face:

• Lifespan − women live an average of 5 years longer than men²
• Time spent out of the workforce − as primary caregivers, women typically work 12 years less than men over their lifetime, according to the Women’s Institute for a Secure Retirement
• Lower earnings − on average, women earn 77 cents for every dollar a man makes²

Read the Nationwide Financial survey now (PDF)

“The fact is that women live longer than men, which means they will spend more time in retirement and that places women at a greater risk of outliving their retirement assets,” said John Carter, president of sales and distribution for Nationwide Financial. “It also increases their chances of incurring long-term care costs during their golden years. That’s why it’s especially important for women to plan for health care costs in retirement.”

Planning is essential

Many factors are involved planning for health care in retirement, like estimated Medicare coverage, other health insurance coverage and potential retirement income sources.

Talk to your investment professional to find out how these things work together for a successful plan. If you don’t have one, find out why to work with an investment professional.

^{1 Data was collected via an online survey by Harris Interactive on behalf of Nationwide from Jan. 3-19, 2012. The survey was among 625 adults ages 55+ having $250,000 or more in household assets who plan to retire by 2020 and 625 retired adults ages 65+ having $250,000 or more in household assets. Results were weighted as needed for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region, household income and investable assets. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online. To see the entire survey, visit www.nationwide.com/healthcare.}

^{2 Census Bureau reports and data, Current Population Reports, “Median Earning of Workers 15 Years Old and Over by Work Experience and Sex,” updated September 2010 by the National Committee on Pay Equity.}

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