The management of one’s healthcare after retirement poses a huge challenge to a majority of Kenyan retirees. Last year, members of parliament had asked the government to lower the age of beneficiaries of the free National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) cover to 60 years. Currently, NHIF offers the free services only to select people above 65 years in 42,000 households, under the Elderly and Persons with Severe Disabilities Health Insurance Subsidy Programme. Furthermore, very few private insurers accept new members over the age of 70 as they do not want to gamble with this category, which is plagued with health complication.
It is therefore imperative that as one plans for their retirement and pensions, health planning should be an important aspect to guarantee stress free living. Health planning and wealth management will go hand in to ensure you live a decent life when you finally leave employment.
To effectively manage one’s healthcare post retirement, consider the following steps:
1. Visualize the bigger picture
While healthcare is key, one must start by capturing their overarching retirement goals, and the specific milestones that will show progress. These goals should include a specific health care plan with a budget. Getting a correct estimate of these costs and creating a strategy for saving can help preserve more of one’s retirement assets for other expenditures. Without proper planning, healthcare can easily account for a big share of one’s retirement budget.
2. Get a bankable pension
Speak to your retirement benefit scheme to find out which products they have that can provide a sustained income in retirement. Commonly known as bankable pensions, these schemes ensure that one maintains their current lifestyle in retirement, with others including medical care. LAPFUND’s retirement benefits income draw-down enables a member to receive regular payments for a period of not less than 10 years.
3. Exercise
A key aspect of healthcare management post retirement is exercise. One must set aside time to regularly exercise to decrease their chances of developing lifestyle diseases. Over and above exercising, one must partake balanced meals and schedule routine wellbeing screenings to enable early detection and treatment of some diseases. Regular exercising helps one burn excess calories and keeps them fit thus enhancing chances of not being a frequent visitor to health facilities.
4. Stay informed
Retirement planning is not a one-off occurrence. While staying as healthy as possible is one way of managing healthcare in old age, keeping abreast with the changes in health care services is the other way. It is important to stay informed on the latest available treatments and service offerings. Seek information and review your healthcare plan regularly. However, do not overdo it and neglect your health in an effort to save money.
5. Manage risk
Old age comes with its complication and it is important to protect one’s family by anticipating issues and proactively addressing them before they arise. This entails having estate management plans in place including a will, a healthcare directive including issues such as do-not-resuscitate order and a current power of attorney. This takes care of situations where health circumstances change quickly, and one is incapacitated.
