Can You Buy into Medicare?

[G.Gordon]

Agreed. But unless I'm grossly mistaken(which can happen), paying into SS is not optional. If you work, you have to pay your income taxes. If I'm missing something, could someone please tell me how to opt out? All joking aside, I think it's more likely that the individual explaining the situation is confused then someone working for a school district and receiving retiree benefits without having paid FICA.

Some state teachers association exempted the teacher from paying ss tax. In this example she may have to pay A and B premiums.

 

[DS4]

Part A: (Hospital Insurance) Premium

• Most people get Part A automatically when they turn age 65. They don't have to pay a monthly payment called a premium for Part A because they or a spouse paid Medicare taxes while they were working.
• You pay up to $461.00 each month if you don't get premium-free.
• The Part A premium is $254.00 for those individuals having 30-39 quarters of Medicare covered employment.

Part B: (Medical Insurance) Premium

• Most Medicare beneficiaries will continue to pay the same $96.40 Part B premium amount in 2010. Beneficiaries who currently have the Social Security Administration (SSA) withhold their Part B premium and have incomes of $85,000 or less (or $170,000 or less for joint filers) will not have an increase in their Part B premium for 2010.

For all others, the standard Medicare Part B monthly premium will be $110.50 in 2010, which is a 15% increase over the 2009 premium. The Medicare Part B premium is increasing in 2010 due to possible increases in Part B costs. Some people will pay a higher premium based on their modified adjusted gross income. Learn More

 

[lmspeir]

Thanks for all the opinions. We have tried most of them.

As a follow-up, here is the current situation. The lady and her husband worked in the school system. Neither paid into Social Security but into the Teacher Retirement System. So, she has no ability to get Part A according to the Social Security office.

We did get her enrolled into Social Security and she was able to sign up for Part B, although at a very sizeable penalty per month. We are going back to she if she could get the penalty waived since she did have credible coverage. Howe er, regardless of the cost, it will be July before anything goes into place.

We have gone with her to DFACS to see if there is anything they can do. They are looking to see if she can get some sort of Spend Down arrangement.

Botttom line - as of this moment, she is without any sort of coverage. Sure seems a shame she is paying for decisions her employer made way back when.

If any of you braniacs come up with a workable alternative to help this lady, we would sure appreciate it.

Thanks again.

Larry

 

[Mr_Ed]

Thanks for all the opinions. We have tried most of them.

As a follow-up, here is the current situation. The lady and her husband worked in the school system. Neither paid into Social Security but into the Teacher Retirement System. So, she has no ability to get Part A according to the Social Security office.

We did get her enrolled into Social Security and she was able to sign up for Part B, although at a very sizeable penalty per month. We are going back to she if she could get the penalty waived since she did have credible coverage. Howe er, regardless of the cost, it will be July before anything goes into place.

We have gone with her to DFACS to see if there is anything they can do. They are looking to see if she can get some sort of Spend Down arrangement.

Botttom line - as of this moment, she is without any sort of coverage. Sure seems a shame she is paying for decisions her employer made way back when.

If any of you braniacs come up with a workable alternative to help this lady, we would sure appreciate it.

Thanks again.

Larry

Why isn't she buying into Medicare Part A?
Anybody 65 and over can buy into Medicare Part A.

 

[DS4]

she has no ability to get Part A according to the Social Security office.

Everyone can purchase Part A

We did get her enrolled into Social Security and she was able to sign up for Part B, although at a very sizeable penalty per month

Now you have me confused???? She doesn't have Part A but she has Part B??? That is not possible.
The Part B penalty will be waived by Social Security. You need your client to get a letter from the school district indicating your client had employer group coverage until ??-??-????.

 

[Norwayguy]

Here's another link that fills in some of the gaps: Teachers and Social Security.

This is very interesting. It looks like they do have to still pay into Medicare which would mean that if she was working for more than 10 years she's in.

lmspeir: If you want help with this PM me or send me an e-mail with the state/county and a phone number for me to call you and give you an idea of what your options are. May even be worth talking to the plan administrator.

Its been a couple of years since I ran into a person like this but schools prior to 1993 I believe could opt not to have employees pay into medicare after that date new employees were required to pay into Medicare but prior employees were still exempted. And if your not aware Medicare pro many Governmental employees do not pay into social security and have a pension system instead...I wish I could opt out!!

 

[Josh]

Everyone can purchase Part A



Now you have me confused???? She doesn't have Part A but she has Part B??? That is not possible.

That is ENTIRELY possible, but not very common. Someone could have not worked their full 40 quarters and not wanted to pay the premium for part A, but want to enroll in part B. Again, not very common, but entirely possible.

 

[jdeasy]

That is ENTIRELY possible, but not very common. Someone could have not worked their full 40 quarters and not wanted to pay the premium for part A, but want to enroll in part B. Again, not very common, but entirely possible.

That is possible and I've run into it a few times. That's not what the op is saying. He is saying that this person cannot buy part A at any price.

 

[retread]

I ran into a similar situation a couple of months ago. The husband worked for a local government and did not pay into Social Security. Did not have Medicare A or B eligibility on his own work record.

Wife employed elsewhere and did pay SS over 10 years.

Husband filed for Medicare under wife's eligibility and now has Medicare A and B.

Government employees can and usually do work the system. Double dipping is not rare.

In the above case, neither spouse had Medicare eligibilty on their work record, so they have to "buy in".

 

[jdeasy]

I ran into a similar situation a couple of months ago. The husband worked for a local government and did not pay into Social Security. Did not have Medicare A or B eligibility on his own work record.

Wife employed elsewhere and did pay SS over 10 years.

Husband filed for Medicare under wife's eligibility and now has Medicare A and B.

Government employees can and usually do work the system. Double dipping is not rare.

In the above case, neither spouse had Medicare eligibilty on their work record, so they have to "buy in".

That's what I thought as well, but, he is now saying that she cannot buy in.