Health care prices and connected money considerations are a standard thread across multiple generations,” aforesaid John Carter, president of Nationwide Retirement Plans and president and chief operative officer-elect of Nationwide money. “In fact, our data illustrate a nearly universal truth when it comes to health care costs: these concerns last a lifetime.”
The findings were gathered from surveys conducted online by Edelman Intelligence among one thousand U.S. adults ages twenty-five through forty-five, or “younger adults”; and by The Harris Poll among one,462 U.S. adults ages 50 or older with investable assets of $50K or more who are retired or plan to retire in the next 10 years, or “older adults.”
Despite fifty-eight of older adults are scared of what health care prices might do to their retirement plans associated sixty-seven being most stressed concerning an out of the blue decline in health, this concern is not essentially translating into adults taking actions to grade health care and money eudaimonia nowadays.
Many older adults also have regrets about their actions over the years, with almost half of those who are retired (46%) reporting they would save more in their retirement accounts if they might set up for retirement another time.
Financial matters are creating folks sick, and therefore the king of all money worries over a time period is health care. In fact, 3 in four younger adults have had negative experiences ensuing from money stress.
According to the survey, younger adults shared that money stress had a negative impact on their overall health (39%); injured their relationship with their spousal equivalent or companion (35%); hurt relationships with friends (26%); hurt their performance at work (26%) and hurt their attendance at work (21%).
One in five (20%) younger adults report health care expenses have had extreme impact on their well-being, inflicting them to skip obtaining care (48%), get in debt (38%), stop saving money for discretionary purchases (43%), kept them from getting needed medicine (33%), made it harder to contribute as much as they would like to a 401(k) retirement account (31%) or caused them to file for bankruptcy (13%).
“The financial barriers to affording health care can be overwhelming; however, many adults don’t realize there are a number of ways to lessen the financial burden,” said Carter.
Younger adults are needing to do a lot of to grade their health and be financially ready for health care prices. In fact, 69% agree prioritizing self-care and mental health will help them save on health care expenses in the distant future and would like to do more to prioritize their health.
However, many today are not prioritizing their health. One in three younger adults admits health and wellness are not a top priority for them, and 40% admit they do not get preventative care today to prioritize their health in the future.
Interestingly, younger adults realize the importance of prioritizing their health now yet are not acting: 50% say 10-15 years from now they will wish they had taken better care of their health. The good news is there are many low costs, high-impact practices consumers can follow to help achieve their goals of staying healthy today and wealthy tomorrow.
“There’s a disconnect among younger adults when it comes to the idea of prioritizing self-care and mental health versus the actions being taken,” said Kristi Rodriguez, leader of the Nationwide Retirement Institute.
“Many understand these should be the main concern, but too few realize there are simple ways to mitigate potential health care costs both today and tomorrow that are already afforded to them through their employer.”
Both younger associated older adults lack understanding of the benefits an HSA will offer them from a tax perspective and as a retirement savings tool. In fact, solely Revolutionary Organization 17 November of younger adults use associate HSA and of these World Health Organization have one, 25% use it to pay only for today’s health care expenses.
“Nationwide Retirement Institute’s annual health care consumer survey sheds light on the trends and challenges adults face when planning for health care costs leading up to and in retirement,” continued Rodriguez. “An HSA is a good tool for supplementing retirement savings, while also offering tax benefits.
There is a transparent chance for additional education around and larger adoption of HSAs among younger and older adults.”