Medical costs for retirees falling, still very high for those without employer based coverage

The Employee Benefits Research Institute released a report on Tuesday estimating the savings that new retirees will need to cover their expected premiums and out of pocket medical costs. A 65-year-old woman retiring this year without employer based coverage and $242,000 in the bank will have a 90% chance of covering all of their health care expenses, according to the report. For men aged 65 without employer coverage the amount is $211,000, due to shorter life expectancies.

Those numbers were $450,000 and $378,000 for women and men respectively in 2009 but have fallen due to the expansion of the Medicare prescription drug program passed as part of the health care reform bill earlier this year.

The study also found that retirees with employer based coverage, including many union members, can feel secure retiring with a little over half as much set aside. EBRI estimated that women would need $100,000 less and men would need $86,000 less on average to retire with confidence.-- Yahoo EBRI