Medicare B Penalty if Return to US from Abroad
 

Hello,

My husband and I plan to move from the US to the UK for an indefinite period. We are both over 65 and now enrolled in Medicare A & B, plus we have a Medigap plan.
I have read that if we decide to move back to the US, after some years, and have not been paying the Medicare B premium all that time, that we MAY face a 10% per year away penalty added to our B premium.....for a lifetime.

Does this penalty always apply? Can it be avoided? If we can prove we had "credible coverage" with NHS coverage in the UK the whole time we were away, would that allow us to avoid the penalty? It seems grossly unjust to penalize us so, just for being out of the country for a few years.

Many thanks! Sheryl

Re: Medicare B Penalty if Return to US from Abroad
 

Medicare is an insurance policy..... if you join the insurance pool later in life your premiums are higher.

So, if you don't continue your premiums, when you re-join you re-join at the higher premium

It's not unfair.... if the rest of the pool has been paying for 10 years while you are away, they should not have to subsidise you when you decide to return.

Don't know of any waiver for voluntarily stopping paying in.

Re: Medicare B Penalty if Return to US from Abroad
 

Re: Medicare B Penalty if Return to US from Abroad
 

Thank you both so much. Interesting Robin1234 that you continue to pay after 5 years. It is no small sum. We will indeed have to do a calculation.

And SanDiegoGirl. I see your point. Of course we will be not only paying higher premiums, but also a penalty for life on top of the higher premiums when we return. People who join for the first time at that point only have to pay higher premiums.

But still, I see some justice in what you say, assuming that the premiums in any one year never really cover the real cost of the medical needs in any one year, and so previous premiums are needed to make up for it. Or something like that!! Thank you, again.

Re: Medicare B Penalty if Return to US from Abroad
 

I don't quite understand it either. You didn't get your subsidy so now you get a smaller subsidy?

Re: Medicare B Penalty if Return to US from Abroad
 

Re: Medicare B Penalty if Return to US from Abroad
 

This is going to be my strategy moving forward: high deductible, relatively low cost Advantage plan that covers the bases and can be changed to a lower deductible Advantage plan if that's the way the cookies crumble down the road.

Re: Medicare B Penalty if Return to US from Abroad
 

Involving insurance companies in healthcare decisions about benefits that you are guaranteed under traditional Medicare is a terrible idea. I see it every single day.

Re: Medicare B Penalty if Return to US from Abroad
 

The equation becomes a little different if you're living abroad for some or all of the year.