--- title: The Average Medicare Recipient Pays Over $6,500 Out of Pocket for Health Care Annually description: New research from the AARP shows that the average Medicare recipient paid $6,663 out of pocket for health care in 2019. authors: - name: Adam Hardy role: Lead Data Reporter url: https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/ bio: Adam Hardy is a lead data journalist at Money, where he frequently reports on financial barriers that affect low-income Americans. Adam’s work has also appeared in Business Insider, Forbes, Nasdaq, The Penny Hoarder, Yahoo! Finance and more than a dozen local and regional newspapers. education: University of South Florida, BA, Magazine Journalism at_money_since: 2021 articles: 497 covers: - Insurance - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology also_seen_in: - The Penny Hoarder - Forbes Advisor - Creative Loafing - The New York Times - The Washington Post - Bloomberg - Harvard Law School - The Federal Register - National Consumer Law Center - CBS News - Becker's Hospital Review - Business Insider - Mother Jones - The Week - Fortune - The Philadelphia Inquirer - National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NAFSAA) - Education Advisory Board (EAB) - The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS) - This Morning with Gordon Deal - Empower - Reddit social: - https://www.x.com/hardyjournalism - https://www.linkedin.com/in/hardyjournalism/ published: '2023-04-26T19:41:44.000Z' modified: '2024-02-18T12:41:24.000Z' section: Insurance word_count: 598 canonical: https://money.com/average-medicare-out-of-pocket/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Senior man is prepared to pay with his credit card at the doctors office](https://img.money.com/2023/04/News-Medicare-Recipient-Spent-6k-Last-Year.jpg?crop=0px%2C250px%2C2880px%2C1620px&quality=85) Health care expenses are [a major burden for many Americans](https://money.com/families-delayed-medical-care-2022-cost/), but new research shows that Medicare beneficiaries are especially getting hammered by soaring out-of-pocket costs. The average [Medicare](https://money.com/what-is-medicare/) recipient now spends more than $6,500 a year out of pocket to cover [health care costs](https://money.com/health-care-costs-lifetime/), according to the March AARP report. What's more, trends show that number has been rapidly rising in recent years — which could prove particularly difficult for retirees who live on fixed incomes. AARP, a nonprofit advocacy group for Americans over age 50, [recently analyzed](https://www.aarp.org/content/dam/aarp/ppi/2023/3/beneficiaries-in-traditional-medicare-out-of-pocket-spending-for-health-care.doi.10.26419-2fppi.00184.001.pdf) the out-of-pocket costs for people enrolled in traditional Medicare, a federal health insurance program that serves approximately 35 million Americans (primarily adults 65 and older but also millions of younger people with disabilities). It looked at beneficiaries covered by Parts A (for hospital stays), B (for doctor's appointments) and D (for prescriptions). - AARP found that the average Medicare enrollee paid $6,663 out of pocket on health care in 2019. Out-of-pocket costs included monthly premiums, copays, coinsurance, deductibles and other services not covered by traditional Medicare. - The year prior, average out-of-pocket expenses were $6,168 — marking an increase of 8% or nearly $500. - “Considering that half of Medicare beneficiaries live on less than $29,650 a year, many people covered by the program face burdensome out-of-pocket costs,” wrote Claire Noel-Miller, the author of the report and a senior policy advisor at AARP. - AARP, as well as the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), have released similar estimates several times over the past decade or so. Trends show that out-of-pocket Medicare expenses plateaued in the late aughts around $4,500 but then started to sharply increase over the next decade. - By comparison, the average American’s out-of-pocket health care spending was $1,231 in 2019, according to [KFF](https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/indicator/access-affordability/out-of-pocket-spending/#Household%20out-of-pocket%20spending%20as%20a%20share%20of%20current%20health%20expenditures,%202020%20or%20nearest%20year%C2%A0). While older folks and people with disabilities may require more care in general, another major reason out-of-pocket [Medicare expenses](https://money.com/healthcare-costs-retirement-fidelity-study-2022/) are so high by comparison is that traditional Medicare does not have an out-of-pocket maximum. Private plans offered through the federal health care exchange, on the other hand, *must* set [out-of-pocket caps](https://www.healthcare.gov/glossary/out-of-pocket-maximum-limit/). In 2023, the federal limit was $9,100 for individuals, though it’s much lower for many plans. In other words, if you spend a certain, predetermined amount of money each year on health care — say, $5,000 — the private insurer will cover 100% of all expenses afterward. Traditional Medicare offers no such perk. However, starting in 2025, annual out-of-pocket [spending for prescription drugs](https://money.com/prescriptions-skipped-drug-cost/) through Medicare Part D will be capped at $2,000. As of this year, Medicare insulin costs have been capped at $35 per month as part of the [Inflation Reduction Act](https://money.com/inflation-reduction-act-save-you-money/). ## Offsetting out-of-pocket Medicare costs [Ballooning health care costs](https://money.com/retirement-healthcare-costs-inflation-report/) are pinching the budgets of Medicare beneficiaries, many of whom are on fixed incomes centered around Social Security payments and pensions. According to a recent [survey](https://news.ehealthinsurance.com/_ir/68/20231/Medicare_Pulse_-_Sentiments_and_Satifaction_Survey.pdf) from the health-insurance marketplace eHealth, 75% of Medicare beneficiaries are now worried about affording out-of-pocket costs. Noel-Miller noted in the AARP report that beneficiaries do have options to help them offset those expenses, including doubling up coverage with [Medicaid](https://money.com/lose-medicaid-coverage-health-insurance-options/). Additionally, [four Medicare savings programs](https://www.medicare.gov/medicare-savings-programs), which are offered by individual states, can help lower-income earners afford deductibles, coinsurance and copayments. However, she added, many people who qualify haven’t enrolled because they’re not aware of the programs or because of the complex application process. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/average-medicare-out-of-pocket/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Insurance", "item": "https://money.com/insurance/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "The Average Medicare Recipient Pays Over $6,500 Out of Pocket for Health Care Annually" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/average-medicare-out-of-pocket/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/average-medicare-out-of-pocket/", "name": "The Average Medicare Recipient Pays Over $6,500 Out of Pocket for Health Care Annually", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2023-04-26T19:41:44.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/average-medicare-out-of-pocket/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/average-medicare-out-of-pocket/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-02-18T12:41:24.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "The Average Medicare Recipient Pays Over $6,500 Out of Pocket for Health Care Annually", "articleSection": "Insurance", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2023/04/News-Medicare-Recipient-Spent-6k-Last-Year.jpg?crop=0px%2C250px%2C2880px%2C1620px&quality=85", "width": 1012, "height": 569, "caption": "News-Medicare-Recipient-Spent-6k-Last-Year" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Adam Hardy", "url": "https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/#author", "description": "Adam Hardy is a lead data journalist at Money, where he frequently reports on financial barriers that affect low-income Americans. 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