Retirement account for health care

A: The primary question raised is if you do not have medical insurance and are not enrolled in Medicaid or an alternate welfare plan, then what makes us believe that the desired medical care (an expensive operation, as used in your example) would be provided? While stabilizing and comforting care is provided by U.S. hospitals without regard to the ability to pay. Almost every day we hear of medical where individuals can not obtain the care they want because they do not have the ability to pay. This is commonly referred to as a "rationing" of health care for uninsureds. More information on the political aspects of this issue can be found at covertheuninsured.org. A creditor cannot attach your assets held in a qualified retirement plan. It would be up to you to decide whether to use these funds to pay for health care that is not covered by insurance. A rule of thumb is to realize that about 1/3 of your post-retirement expenses will be used for health care. If you allocate your income and assets accordingly, and still cannot afford the cost of health insurance, then there is a good chance that you qualify (or will soon qualify) for Medicaid. On the other hand, if the cost of health insurance is less than 1/3 of your total resources then the burden is on you to rearrange your finances; do not expect much help form the government. Many people do not realize that our national health financing policy for lower middle class people is actually, as you state, to allow them to strip down their assets to poverty level and then pay the remaining costs from public funds. This spend down may be done voluntarily (some even plan for it) or forced by state-imposed liens on the estate of a decedent. It may not seem fair but there are no viable alternatives at this time.