Health care costs are especially worrisome for people 65 and older, writes Katherine Hobson of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, as they face increased Medicare premiums while naturally experiencing more health concerns. Hobson shares how to lower your health care costs during these challenging times.
Gas prices are soaring, the cost of beef is through the roof, and electricity bills have shot up everywhere. But in a year when the affordability of basic goods and services is causing great anxiety across the board, there seems to be no expense more worrisome to Americans than what they’re paying for health care.
The evidence is everywhere. Two-thirds of Americans now say they worry about how they’ll be able to afford health care for themselves and their families — overshadowing concerns about any other necessity, including utilities, food and groceries, housing, and gas, according to a recent poll from nonprofit health policy organization KFF. And the majority, some 56%, say they expect the price of receiving care will become even less affordable this year.
“The problem of higher health care costs is bad, and it’s getting worse,” says Caitlin Donovan, senior director at the nonprofit Patient Advocate Foundation.
The price of health insurance — the thing that’s supposed to protect you from high medical bills — has grown especially burdensome. That’s particularly true for many people who get coverage on the Affordable Care Act Health Insurance Marketplace.
Four out of five people who re-enrolled in marketplace plans for 2026 report their premiums, deductibles, coinsurance and co-payments are higher than last year, with about half saying they’re a lot higher, KFF says. The benchmark premium is up 22% on average, compared with 2% average annual increases between 2020 and 2025, according to the Urban Institute. Meanwhile, the expiration of enhanced premium tax credits for people who earn more than 400% of the federal poverty level means those enrollees, on average, saw their premiums about double.
People who get health insurance through work or Medicare have been hit hard too. Premiums for family coverage rose 6% last year for people with employer-provided insurance, who paid an average of $6,850 in premiums, according to KFF. And costs are expected to rise even more this year — 6.7% on average, the consulting firm Mercer projects, the biggest jump in 15 years.
Costs have risen even more for people 65 and older who are covered by Medicare. Monthly premiums for Part B, which covers doctor visits and other outpatient care, jumped 9.7% this year, to $202.90, dwarfing the 2.8% inflation adjustment in Social Security benefits. As a result, the percentage of Social Security income needed to pay Medicare premiums has hit an all-time high, according to a recent analysis by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.
The upshot: About one-third of Americans now report making at least one trade-off with daily living expenses to afford health care, such as stretching out prescriptions or borrowing money, according to a poll from the West Health–Gallup Center on Healthcare in America. While the burden is worse for people without insurance, almost three in 10 people covered by a health plan say they’ve made at least one trade-off. Even among adults in households earning $240,000 a year or more, 11% report making at least one trade-off.
Specific ways to lower your health care costs
“In the wealthiest country in the world, people shouldn’t be choosing between their health and their financial future,” says Tim Lash, president of the nonprofit West Health Policy Center. Fortunately, you have ways to ease the strain. Here are some of them.
Reassess your health insurance options every year.
Whether you get coverage from your employer, a government marketplace or Medicare, you have a chance to reconsider your options and switch plans each year during your provider’s designated open-enrollment season to save money and get better coverage for your needs. You shouldn’t automatically default to re-enrolling in your current plan.
Yet that’s exactly what many people do. About half of employees who get insurance at work spend less than an hour reviewing their choices, according to a survey by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) and Greenwald Research. And most Medicare beneficiaries didn’t look at other options for coverage, such as switching Medicare Advantage plans or moving to traditional Medicare from an Advantage plan, during a recent open-enrollment period, KFF found.
The costs of inertia can add up, says Jake Spiegel, a senior research associate at EBRI. Formularies for prescription-drug coverage can change, for example, so a low-cost med you’re taking now might move to a higher tier with a heftier co-pay. Providers may move out of a network, which means you’ll pay more to visit them.
Spiegel advises running the numbers every year, taking into account your total out-of-pocket costs, not just premiums, based on what you think your health care needs will be. For example, if you’re managing a chronic condition that requires frequent doctor visits and treatments, or you expect you’ll need surgery, it might make sense to elect a plan with higher premiums but lower co-pays when you receive care.
Consider an HSA, if you’re eligible.
A health savings account is available to those enrolled in high-deductible health plans (with a deductible of at least $1,700 for individual coverage or $3,400 for families in 2026) who have no other comprehensive health insurance coverage, aren’t enrolled in Medicare and can’t be claimed as a dependent on someone else’s tax return. Because of a provision in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, all bronze and catastrophic plans purchased on the ACA marketplace are now eligible for HSAs.
“HSAs have a triple tax benefit,” says Carolyn McLanahan, founder of Life Planning Partners and a certified financial planner and medical doctor. You get a tax deduction on your contributions, earnings on those funds grow tax-free, and you can withdraw the money tax-free as long as you use it to pay for qualified medical expenses. You can use the funds to cover ongoing expenses, or you can pay those bills out of pocket, then invest the funds and use them in retirement to cover medical needs. Starting at age 65, you can also take money from the account for non-medical spending without penalty, although you will owe income tax on the withdrawals.
In 2026, the HSA contribution limit is $4,400 for individuals or $8,750 if you have family coverage. People 55 and older can make an additional $1,000 catch-up contribution. Bonus: Some employers contribute to workers’ accounts.
Check for medical billing errors.
About half of medical bills have mistakes, Donovan at the Patient Advocate Foundation estimates. Review your statements, identify possible errors and, if you see something fishy, dispute the charge. Only about six in 10 people with some concern about a medical bill reached out to their provider, but nearly three-fourths of those who suspected an error succeeded in getting the charge corrected, a 2024 study published in the JAMA Health Forum found.
“For people who did make the call, they were really more likely to get some relief,” says Erin Duffy, a scholar at the USC Schaeffer Institute for Public Policy & Government Service and lead author of the study.
Wait to pay any medical bill you get until you’ve received the explanation of benefits (EOB) or Medicare Summary Notice from your insurer, Donovan advises. If the amount your insurer says you owe doesn’t match up with the bill, there’s an error, and you should call the provider’s billing office and ask them to explain the discrepancy. Be persistent, says Donovan, who notes that it usually takes multiple calls to get a resolution.
Compare prices.
Getting an MRI or a hip replacement isn’t the same as shopping for a new appliance or a car. But the principle of checking costs from several providers to find the best price for what you need still applies.
And prices for common health care services do vary widely, even within the same geographic area. One study found, for instance, that the price for a lower-back MRI in the Miami area ranged from $186 to $1,423, while the cost of a hip or knee replacement around San Diego ran from a low of $20,305 to a high of $51,995.
Federal law now requires hospitals to post prices on their websites — including cash prices and the negotiated price for specific insurance plans — for 300 “shoppable services,” such as a colonoscopy or knee replacement. Many have personalized tools so you can see what your costs will be. You can also call the provider for an estimate.
Negotiate with your provider.
Once you have a sense of the costs from different providers, you can negotiate, even if you have insurance. “Ask what the cash price is,” Donovan says. “If you know you won’t likely meet your deductible outside of some catastrophic event, sometimes it will save you money not to use insurance.”
In fact, hospital prices for 70 common services, such as lab tests, imaging and routine procedures, were lower nearly half the time for patients paying in cash rather than using insurance, a study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found.
You can also negotiate after the fact — say, if you’re stuck with a big bill because, as is common, the provider’s fee was much higher than what your insurer deemed “reasonable and customary.” In the JAMA Health Forum billing study, 62% of respondents who reached out to negotiate a bill received a price cut. Donovan suggests offering a percentage up front, then monthly payments for a certain number of months, with the total adding up to a percentage of the original bill.
Do an annual prescription review.
About 66% of U.S. adults report taking at least one prescription medication, with 31% taking four or more, according to KFF. More medications mean a higher risk of side effects and drug interactions, as well as higher costs. It’s a good idea to review your prescriptions annually with your physician to make sure you still need them.
“Talk to your doctor about what you should and shouldn’t take — it could save you a lot of money,” says Arthur “Abbie” Leibowitz, chief medical officer and president emeritus of Health Advocate, a provider of health advocacy and navigation, well-being and behavioral health programs.
Don’t forget any over-the-counter medications or dietary supplements that you take regularly. Americans spent almost $69 billion on dietary supplements last year, most of them over-the-counter purchases, according to Grand View Research.
Katherine Hobson is a contributing writer at Kiplinger Personal Finance magazine. For more on this and similar money topics, visit Kiplinger.com.
©2026 The Kiplinger Washington Editors, Inc. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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