Do you have to sign up for Medicare when you sign up for Social Security?
Can you take Social Security WITHOUT joining Medicare?
I don’t know..................FReepers?........................
Medicare happens at 65. As I remember 6 years ago, I had to take it.
As I understand it, you must sign up for Medicare at 65 years of age. When you trigger Social Security has nothing to do with signing up for Medicare. In fact, if you sign up for SS before age 65, you'll automatically get signed up for Medicare when you turn 65. Folks here will correct me I'm sure if I'm wrong, but this is how I understand it.
If you’re at full retirement age you must take Medicare or you will be penalized later for not taking it. Many corporate medical plans (if you continue working) put Medicare as primary insurance and the corporate plan as excess—another inducement to make Medicare a necessity.
Also, if you do not sign up for some form of medicare prescription coverage at 65 you will also be penalized, with higher premiums, when you do purchase prescription coverage.
It's truly a government forced racket.
medicare-ss signups generally unrelated.
https://www.medicare.gov/people-like-me/new-to-medicare/getting-started-with-medicare.html
click thru links to get where you need to get.
Part A is premium free, so no reason not to take when eligible.
Medicare kicks in at 65, so if you start taking SS early, you won’t be getting Medicare. Be aware that if you don’t take Medicare at 65 without jumping through some specific hoops, you incur a lifetime penalty for late enrollment. Go to the SS office a few months before your 65th birthday to make sure you enroll on Medicare on time.
My mom didn’t follow the rules and had to pay extra for part B coverage for approximately 35 years.
If you are drawing Social Security when you turn 65, they will also take $120 or so out of your check every month for Medicare Part B (outpatient care) unless you specifically decline it.
I receive my medical care at the VA so I don't feel I need the Medicare Part B outpatient coverage.
So I rejected the Part B when I turned 65, got a new card issued for Part A only and saved the $120 a month.
If you never draw SS, your will still get Medicare Part A by default (turning 65). You don't have a choice but it is free so not to worry.
If you take it at sixty two.
SS and Medicare are two separate programs and you can take one without taking the other.
Medicare you have to join at 65. There is no other option and if you do not sign up at the right time there will be penalties and interest.
My mom was out of the country when she turned 65 and her employer had health insurance on her. When she came back to the states at 67 she was threatened with all sorts of financial penalties for not having signed up at the proper time even though it would have been impossible for her to sign up based on where they were assigned.
Her employer had to threaten to hire a lawyer to get them to back down.
No, you sign up for Medicare when you’re 65, regardless of when you take SS.
Do you have to sign up for Medicare when you sign up for Social Security?
When I began to receive Social Security I was covered by my wife’s insurance. So I did not sign up for Medicare.
When my wife retired I had to go to the social security office and explain why I was not already signed up and got signed up at that time.
specifically, if you receive SS you generally should be automatically enrolled in Medicare.
No, you don’t have to take it. However if you don’t but need to later and haven’t had coverage that meets certain criteria (what they call credible coverage), there are penalties pertaining to cost. This applies to Part B and the Prescription coverage, whatever letter of the alphabet it is. Part A is free and may be a good way of having additional coverage with any existing external coverage you may have.