Full price for a couple who both retire at 62 is about $33,721 a year on the 2026 Silver benchmark — but the premium tax credit caps what they actually pay. At $60,000 of household income their share is $5,678 a year, $473 a month. At the $84,600 subsidy cliff for a household of two the share is $8,426; one dollar above it the credit disappears and the same coverage costs $33,721.
What a 62-year-old couple pays by income (2026)
| Household income | % of poverty line | Premium tax credit | Your share per year | Your share per month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $40,000 | 189% | $31,290 | $2,430 | $203 |
| $50,000 | 236% | $29,751 | $3,970 | $331 |
| $60,000 | 284% | $28,042 | $5,678 | $473 |
| $70,000 | 331% | $26,749 | $6,972 | $581 |
| $84,600 | 400% | $25,294 | $8,426 | $702 |
| $84,601 | 400% | $0 | $33,721 | $2,810 |
Below the cliff the credit pays whatever the benchmark costs above your capped share, so the same couple pays the same amount in an expensive state as in a cheap one. Above the cliff there is no credit and the full premium is yours: on this benchmark that ranges from $21,635 a year in NH to $70,085 in VT. Three years of that gap, from 62 until Medicare at 65, is the number that decides many early-retirement plans.
Figures are the second-lowest-cost Silver benchmark the credit is calculated from — the plan you choose may cost more or less — using the national-average benchmark rather than any one state, scaled by the CMS age-rating factor for age 62. Household income here is the marketplace MAGI for the coverage year.
Methodology
Benchmark premiums from silverBenchmarkMonthly() and credits from subsidy() in QuantCalc's parity-tested ACA module, with the 2026 poverty guidelines (FPL_2026) and the statutory contribution-percentage schedule (ACA_APPLICABLE_PCT). The national-average benchmark is the module's documented fallback for a non-state code, used here so no single state stands in for all of them. See the 2026 FPL dataset and the ACA bridge-income study.
Every figure on this page is computed at build time from QuantCalc's parity-tested calculation modules or a committed dataset — never hand-entered. Reference for research and planning only; not tax, legal, or investment advice.
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Changelog
- v2026.1 — first publication. Figures computed from the 2026 tax-constants mirror and committed datasets.
Cite this dataset
QuantCalc Research (2026). How much does health insurance cost if I retire at 62, before Medicare, in 2026?. https://quantcalc.app/answers/health-insurance-cost-retiring-at-62/ (accessed <date>).
BibTeX
@misc{quantcalc2026howmuchdoeshealthinsurancecostifiretirea,
title = {How much does health insurance cost if I retire at 62, before Medicare, in 2026?},
author = {{QuantCalc Research}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://quantcalc.app/answers/health-insurance-cost-retiring-at-62/},
note = {Accessed <date>}
}Machine-readable citation metadata (schema.org identifier and citation fields) is embedded in this page's JSON-LD, at the stable identifier https://quantcalc.app/answers/health-insurance-cost-retiring-at-62/.