Retiring, when too young for Medicare (vacations, states, retiree, vacation)
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My spouse will be 62 - not yet eligible for Medicare.
I was told by my HR rep that when you retire you can use COBRA for 36 months instead of the regular 18 months..... I do know COBRA is prohibitively expensive.
I do know the ACA is not going away. Regardless of what Republicans think.
I hope we have good options.
Keep working if you can a few more years and draw social security benefits while still working full time and bank the SS money to make COBRA payments for a shorter time gap when you retire. Age requirements for drawing SS while working full time varies with age (over 65)so you will need to check into that and see if you can stand to work past that date. COBRA is expensive.
Adjusted Gross Income (AGI, as defined by IRS)
+ Excluded foreign income
+ Tax exempt interest
+ Non-taxable Social Security benefits = MAGI
Thanks for the link -- As I read through this, I couldn't help, but, think, 'When something makes sense, it's typically pretty easy to describe and understand. One's ultimate AFA healthcare picture, after calculating one's MAGI ... is so convoluted, one would think the instructions were written by a paranoid lawyer.
Why would lack of private coverage for you affect your husband's Medicare? Husband is already enrolled in Medicare Part B and Part D. Your status in the private insurance world matters not a whit. Each of you is a stand-alone entity in the Medicare world.
Only you are subject to penalties for late enrollment in Medicare and only if you don't enroll timely. when the time comes. Your status has nothing to do with his.
It would affect it, if the husband elected to not take Part B and Part D because he was covered by a qualified plan through her employer. It is my understanding, though, that should she lose her coverage that he is under he has a certain amount of time to enroll in B and D to avoid having to pay more for it. he just has to prove that he was under a qualified plan up to that point.
My wife retired for health reasons at age 54 and I retired at age 62. Thankfully, we are both CA state retirees with fully vested health benefits and we pay no premiums. I've now been on Medicare for three years and my wife for one. The state provides us with Cadillac supplements and unlimited, expanded Part D benefits, still with no premiums and minor copays for the prescriptions only. The state also reimburses us for our Part B premium each month in our pension checks.
That's all the price we paid for lower pay and balky systems throughout our careers and neither of us has any regrets. We may not have always appreciated it while we worked but we sure do in retirement. Best of all, we don't have to bother with the ACA; yet another balky government system.
Why would lack of private coverage for you affect your husband's Medicare? Husband is already enrolled in Medicare Part B and Part D. Your status in the private insurance world matters not a whit. Each of you is a stand-alone entity in the Medicare world.
Only you are subject to penalties for late enrollment in Medicare and only if you don't enroll timely. when the time comes. Your status has nothing to do with his.
DH's parts B and D were covered by my employer. That changed when I retired, so he had to scramble to get PartB and PartD for himself, and that required paperwork from my employer to SSA on his behalf. So in our case, my status had everything to do with his.
If your current spouse is full retirement age, he or she can apply for retirement benefits and then request to have payments suspended. That way, you can receive spouse's benefits and he or she can continue to earn delayed retirement credits until age 70.
Approx 2.5 years to go until I qualify for Medicare. Have access the the VA Health Care System. Also have maintained a Blue Shield policy which is going up to around $700 or so per month. Seriously considering dropping the the Blue Shield policy. Just hoping the VA will be ok. The only good thing is that with pre-existing conditions (blood clots in leg) I can opt back into Obama Care a year from now if necessary.
Concerned about relying on the the VA system only.
It would affect it, if the husband elected to not take Part B and Part D because he was covered by a qualified plan through her employer. It is my understanding, though, that should she lose her coverage that he is under he has a certain amount of time to enroll in B and D to avoid having to pay more for it. he just has to prove that he was under a qualified plan up to that point.
This is correct. Clearly, the better response to this:
Quote:
Originally Posted by oddstray
DH is on Medicare, and I get my insurance from the exchange. I had our financial guy adjust my income so as to stay off Medi-Cal, which s*cks big time (my disabled sister is stuck with it). We had to pay COBRA ($$$!!!) for a month because the people that handle my retiree health care kept effing it up, and I didn't want to risk a non-covered stretch that would cause lifetime penalties for DH's Part B and Part D.
is purchase of COBRA for that reason was unnecessary. Under the SEP, hubby had eight months after losing creditable coverage to enroll in Parts B & D.
Per CMS:
Quote:
Special Enrollment Period (SEP) for the Working Aged and Working Disabled.
Individuals who do not enroll in Part B or Premium-Part A when first eligible because they were covered under a group health plan based on their own or a spouse's current employment (or the current employment of a family member, if disabled) may enroll during the SEP.
The individual can enroll at anytime while covered under the group health plan based on current employment, or during the 8-month period that begins the month the employment ends or the group health plan coverage ends, whichever comes first. Individuals with ESRD are not eligible to enroll during this.
If retiring before Medicare kicks in, how do you afford health insurance?
How have you done it? Thanks.
Just go to an Emergency Room and say..."no habla Ingles".....
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