Health care, other income issues combine to complicate life for retirees

Not long ago, the news site ProPublica published an important story about employers who, in their quest for a younger and cheaper workforce, were pushing out “older” workers – often those in their early 50s. Crunching data from the Urban Institute, reporters found that 28 percent of stable, longtime employees sustain at least one damaging layoff between turning 50 and leaving the workforce for retirement.

While the story was about the financial impacts on laid-off workers’ savings and retirement, it was also about a lot more. It was also about health care – the kind those workers would be able...