exvj

I am scratching my head on medicare now and wonder if anyone has looked at it...

If I stay in the US I will have been in country for 5 years and 2 days when I am 65 and that enables me to buy into Medicare. I can’t use my wife's contributions to give me premium free Medicare because although she has a full contributions record, she wont be 62

So far so good and I will pay almost $600 per month for both parts

If she keeps working and I get her health cover via her work, then I wont be charged an 'absence fee' by Medicare, otherwise my Medicare premium would go up at 10% for every year I delayed joining (plus the usual annual rise)

ok here is my query:

If we go to the UK for 5 years after I am 65, will I get a 50% surcharge when I return ?

I have tried emailing Medicare but they give me an irrelevant 12 page standard answer as though they haven’t even tried to understand. I don’t think they do specific queries – they just hit a standard reply button from a menu - and if it's tough they do it randomly

I don’t trust the people who answer the phones to know the answer to a complex question like this

Any answers please ?

chartreuse

No idea, I'm afraid, but I reckon you're spot on with these two surmises. Perhaps an old fashioned letter, on paper, might get handled differently?

Good luck figuring it out.

slidingbyee

No idea - I think your right not to trust the telephones - I'm still waiting 2 years later for a reply/return telephone call about a medicare eligibility question which similarly delved into the outer reaches of knowledge.

Michael

I don't think anyone thought about that situation when they wrote the rules. However, since you can't use it when out of the country, it doesn't make any sense that you would have to pay for it to keep the 10% penalty from occuring. I think it will be something that you will have to fight with the medicare people when you apply.

Make sure you return to the US during the open enrollment period or you'll have another fight on your hands.

SpoogleDrummer

I don't know the answer but if it's 10% per year it's more likely to be 61% than 50% as I assume if it's 10% per year it'd be 10% of the previous year rather than the initial value e.g 600 after 1 year would be 660, after 2 it'd be 726 rather than 720, after 3 798.6 etc etc. Unless it states that's it's 10% of the initial fee each year.

Could you use your wife's contributions when she does eventually hit 62? So you may have to pay for the first few years but on her 62nd birthday get it premium free or are you stuck paying as soon as you sign up?

exvj

I reckon the premium would disappear when she is 62. Hope I am not wrong - Good job I am struggling with all this now and not going online when I am 73 and might not be as sharp

Jeez, its not like strolling round the corner to see the quack in England. Where I was living, it was a brand new surgery with 4 charming lady Doctors and no need to make an appointment. I had never paid a penny in my life. My USC wife still complained because although it was all totally free, they did the 'women's exam' differently to the US. That's a pointer to the future because most Americans are used to their employer paying and are used to all the frills, and don't get upset until they are thrown out of work at 54 with reasonable but very vulnerable savings, at which stage they are totally and absolutely stuffed - but nobody cares about them because they are still a minority of the population

I reckon I am totally safe now, but I feel so very sad for those who fall into the gap at 54+

I will write to the Social security people but I am not impressed by them so far - its a sausage machine and only straightforward cases get an intelligent reply I reckon. Phoning some Lashaundra isnt going to get me anywhere

Giantaxe

And that, rather succinctly put, is exactly why it's so difficult to get the issue of accessibility to healthcare fixed in the US.

Keith

What an expensive mess. Glad I live in Canada.

exvj

I live 3 hours drive away from Canada - will you marry me ? Its legal now...

Keith

We are only allowed 1 wife in Canada and at 78 too old for something on the side.
Also Ottawa is about 3000 miles from Washington State.

exvj

Part exchange ?

Actually I like Canadian attitudes which I first came across in Toronto. I used to meet my wife there while the US was processing my K1 , GC etc. and I wasnt allowed in. She flew from Milwaukee and I came from England for a 3 day weekend quite a few times

I used to tell Canadian immigration that I only required their country for 3 days for the purpose of a sexual liason. They let me in but only just. The Japanese lady was not amused so I stopped winding em up after 4 visits.

The US is progressing fast I reckon and is catching up with Canada and Europe as far as reductions in rednecks and racism and torture and lynchings - and increasing health cover etc etc is concerned. I am really surprised at how fast society is coming along and I might even agree to become a citizen next year at this rate. I see they have said sorry to the Indians and black people now. Oprah and Mohammed Ali are only half black so I wonder if they only get half a sorry

Next they will say sorry to the Brits for starting an illegal armed insurgency - July 4th would be a good day for that

Keith

I don't know what we would do without the ongoing circus to the south.

Canadians for the most part are inundated with US news and views through the cable networks. It's quite amazing that in a relatively short time they have gone from almost total segregation to having someone like Obama in the White House.

I became a Canadian citizen in 1968 and since we never travel outside of North America now we only need one passport.

exvj

I drove to Vancouver and Victoria couple of weeks since and US immigration only glanced at my green card and didnt even open my UK passport. Changed after that I think. I have done all Europe/Saudi/Australia/new Zealand/Ukraine/Jamaica and lived in 3 parts of the US. In the UK I never moved more than 10 miles from my birthplace coz they are all foreigners in London and Lancashire

I like to rag the Americans a lot coz I am naughty and I dont stop til they get angry - but really I am growing quite fond of them and sorry for the ones who are crushed by the health care system. If they get their act together now they could be on the threshold of being universally liked - really - like in 1953 with Elvis and big cars and the Marshall plan . Happy days indeed. They had Korea going on with McArthur wanting to incinerate the Chinese with nuclear weapons as a first strike, so that 'go out and bomb everyone' tendency was starting then, but nobody thought that was the future. I reckon the Americans are a short step from being thoroughly modern and ever so slightly socialist like Tony Blair whom they love so much (Hey you Americans, he was leader of the SOCIALIST PARTY and sang the 'Internationale ' at party conferences every year !) If they make it I will wave my little American flag as hard as anyone on the 4th of July
They are the only first world country that other first world countries will not extradite to because of executions - so they need to see to that next - and say sorry to the executed ? (joke) I digress, but I see health care reform as part of a process of modernisation which includes this other stuff

Keith

I don't think I shall see the US accept univeral health care in my lifetime. The country has a form of government that moves at snail pace. I believe you may see one or two of the states accept it but I don't see states like Texas moving in that direction. For a so called Christian country they not very charitable towards those they believe to be deadbeats.

I don't think that the US will recover too quickly from this reccession and unfortunately they are going to drag us down with them. If only they hadn't started the war in Iraq things may have been different.

scrubbedexpat091

If those with insurance now cannot keep the same level of care (No wait lists etc) it will be an uphill battle. People simply wont accept waitlists like we have in Canada.

Keep the private system in place, those who want it can keep it.

Create a public insurance system where those that are uninsured or want to opt out of the private system. Government simply provides the payment to the service provider and nothing more.

Cap the public system at 350,000 annual income, anyone making above that must pay for private insurance, they can afford it.

Small monthly premiums for the government insurance plan for non-low income folks (30k or more) but no deductibles or co-pays.

No monthly premiums for those making under 30k/yr.

We have premiums in Canada, well some areas and it works out, there is no reason why people cannot pay some portion of their care.

There isn't a need for the government to fund/run the whole thing for all 300 million people.