Why HR leaders must rethink the HSA as a retirement tool

With the Consumer Price Index sitting at 3.7 percent, healthcare inflation is running at approximately 280 percent the rate of broader price increases in the U.S. economy. But according to Devenir’s 2026 Midyear HSA Research Report, published October 13, 2026, only about 11 percent of all HSA holders – approximately 4.7 million of the 42.6 million accounts in the U.S. market – held invested assets as of June 30, 2026.

“Brokers, advisors, employers all have an opportunity to do that,” Leida told Insurance Business Benefits U.S. “And also to make sure they’re offering HSA bank options to their employees that have additional investment options.”

The retirement cost employers aren’t talking about

The scale of the problem becomes clear when retirement healthcare costs are quantified. The 2026 Milliman Retiree Health Cost Index, published by Milliman actuaries Robert Schmidt and Eric Walters in June 2026, projects that a healthy 65-year-old couple retiring in 2026 needs approximately $418,000 in savings to cover lifetime healthcare costs – an increase of approximately $28,000 to $30,000 from 2025 estimates. For a male retiree on original Medicare plus Medigap Plan G plus Part D, the required savings figure is $199,000; for a female retiree on the same pathway, it is $219,000.

Those numbers sit largely outside the frame of most employer benefits conversations, which tend to focus on premiums, deductibles, and plan design rather than the long-term retirement healthcare liability employees are accumulating.

“We all need to really try to plan for that retirement that we want while being realistic about what’s needed to accomplish it,” Leida said. “Because otherwise you’re going to end up at your retirement and all that money you had hoped to spend traveling – having the retirement of your dreams – you’re going to end up spending on costs that you didn’t plan for.”