Healthcare is one of the biggest and most misunderstood expenses when preparing for early retirement or self-employed.

And in this episode, I'm going to share a lot of detailed research I've done personally on this subject to help break down everything you need to know about health care in 2026 if you don't have a regular job and are not on Medicaid, for example.

That includes Affordable Care Act plans, also

known as Obamacare, subsidies or premium tax credits, Medicare, cost projections, and the strategies

you can use to build a health care plan that supports your long-term financial goals.

By the end of today's episode, you're going to know how to estimate your health care costs

in 2026 under current law immediately and how to think your health care costs in 2026 under current law immediately

and how to think about health care costs over the course of the duration of your early

retirement or self-employment up through the point when you qualify for Medicare at age 65.

All right, Scott, let's jump into this episode.

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to the Bigger Pockets Money podcast.

My name is Mindy Jensen.

And with me as always is my pre-existing co-host, Scott Trench.

Thanks, Mindy.

That's a great, healthy intro to today's topic.

I'm really excited to talk about this.

I've spent a lot of time researching this.

I have produced four artifacts that we'll link to in the show notes here. One is a discussion about

how to think about health care costs in 2026 and get an estimate. The second is a discussion

about how to project health care costs into the future over the next several decades, for example, if you're retiring

early or yourself employed and planned to get something other than employer health insurance

for several decades. The third artifact is a health care cost projection tool, which I'm

...