HealthView Services' 2026 Retirement Healthcare Costs Data Report projects that total retirement healthcare costs will reach $955,411, according to the firm's supplemental data fact sheet. That number includes everything a retiree pays out of pocket over a full retirement: deductibles, copays, and the hearing, vision, and dental expenses that Medicare does not cover.

The same report finds that health insurance premiums in many states will be over 50% higher than their 2022 levels. For context, general inflation — the rate at which prices rise across the whole economy — has been much lower over the same period. When healthcare costs rise faster than everything else, retirees living on savings feel the squeeze more each year, because a larger share of their money goes to medical bills.

HealthView Services publishes these projections every year, so the 2026 report is the latest in a series, not a one-time study. The $955,411 figure is a national average. Your actual costs depend on where you live, what plan you choose, and how long you live. Hearing, vision, and dental costs are included in the total because Medicare's core coverage does not pay for them, meaning retirees either buy extra insurance or pay the full cost themselves.

A 2022 HealthView Services analysis found that a burst of high inflation added $85,917 to the lifetime retirement healthcare costs for a healthy 65-year-old couple. Here is why that matters: when premiums jump in a given year, that higher amount becomes the new starting point for every year after it. Even when inflation cools down, the costs never go back to where they were.

The broader context here is that retirement healthcare cost projections expose two common planning mistakes. The first is treating Medicare as if it covers everything. In reality, Medicare covers about 60% of the typical retiree's healthcare costs, leaving the rest as out-of-pocket spending. The second is relying on retirement calculators that do not account for the fact that medical costs consistently rise 2 to 3 percentage points faster than general inflation each year. If the $955,411 figure is roughly right, a couple retiring in 2026 would need close to a million dollars set aside just for healthcare, separate from housing, food, and everyday living expenses.

For people still working, health savings accounts, or HSAs, offer one of the few tax-advantaged ways to save specifically for these costs. You contribute pre-tax dollars, the money grows tax-free, and withdrawals for medical expenses are tax-free — a combination that becomes more valuable as the final bill grows. The report's finding that premiums vary significantly by state also suggests that moving to a lower-cost state in retirement could be worth real money, alongside the usual considerations of weather, family, and taxes.

The premium increase also affects when you should claim Social Security. If healthcare premiums eat up more of your monthly income, waiting to claim Social Security later — which gives you a larger monthly check — may make more sense, simply to keep up with rising medical costs. The math gets complicated because higher-income retirees also pay surcharges on their Medicare premiums, and those surcharges are tied to retirement account withdrawals.

What is less clear is whether the rapid premium growth from 2022 to 2026 will continue or settle back toward a slower, long-term trend. The report gives a snapshot of costs at a specific point in time, not a prediction of whether the speed of premium increases will speed up, slow down, or hold steady going forward.