One problem some have with retiring early is you don’t get Social Security and Medicare until 65...

Yes. IMO the loss of retiree healthcare was accelerated by Medicare. The industry we were in, (DH and I met at work,) still has retiree healthcare, which we qualified for at 55, but lost at 65 when Medicare took over. Given I have been planning early retirement since the age of 19, and the pre-existing conditions DH had from childhood, we were careful in corporate changes to always go with a company that offered retiree healthcare. With DH now on Medicare, I can state strongly that our retiree healthcare was much superior, and we are very restricted by the requirements he has for mandatory in person quarterly appointments and last minute refilling of prescriptions. My preferred way of travel is to take off and live somewhere else for extended periods of time, grossly complicated by the difficulty of pre-accumulating meds and the mandatory appointments. (Some of DH's scripts are not eligible for "vacation" allotment.) Add to that the fact that the cost of Medicare is no less expensive than retiree healthcare for us, given the level of Roth Conversions we execute. My parents, with life long retiree healthcare, retired at 58 and moved into a 27' motorhome, in which they traveled continuously for the next decade until their health required a permanent home. Like them, I think outside the box and now feel very boxed in with Medicare rules which are not medically necessary.

Medicare is not necessarily the golden ticket it is made out to be.

IP