Most Americans who want health insurance have it. Insurance pays the the bulk of a huge bill. The individual pays a small fraction of a huge bill through deductibles, co-payments and co-insurance (depends on the policy.) This fraction can be paid from the savings a FIRE retiree would have accumulated without significantly affecting their investment income.
The individual pays a larger fraction of smaller medical bills, but because the bills are small, this is also affordable to someone with savings. The majority of medical events are inexpensive.
There are a number of reports of out-of-pocket spending and insurance plan policy detail is generally available. Do you have a preferred source for that data? This conversation is about FIRE, but a summary of the prevelance of burdensome healthcare costs in respect to the broader US population was published here: https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issue-briefs/2...
Again, these are just gentle introductions to the data. I would be happy to read what you’re looking at.
There are a good amount of healthcare resources for retirees and government workers in [WA, USA].
Before he passed away last summer my grandfather was using $26000USD/mo of insurance benefits which the state paid for as he was a retired public employee[0]. Literally added up all the expenditures because I was visiting and bored. This was mainly GP/Antibiotics at a hospital/PT work. The only thing they don't cover is long term care, of which we are currently paying $7500USD/mo for my grandmother.
Yeah, it's a lot of money and they sold their [Grandparents] house last year for approximately $490,000USD after realtors comissions and fees thankfully before COVID. But I hope that puts things in to perspective for those outside the USA.
Basically you have to do a medicare trust for your house or pay $6000-$13000USD/mo for longterm care. Usually what happens is people spend down the parental assets then apply for medicare and they try and find them a nursing home or memory care bed.
The individual pays a larger fraction of smaller medical bills, but because the bills are small, this is also affordable to someone with savings. The majority of medical events are inexpensive.