Medicare Insurance

Last activity 20 December 2018 by mrosephoto

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Dan PluteActive member19 December 2018 21:52:44

Any USA expats have experience with the Social Security Medicare payments. I talked with a Social Security representative and he advised if we cancel our medical care payments we would be penalized up to 10 percent per year that we do not take coverage if we reapply. I was also advised that there is only 1 time period per year to reapply and that the time before the Medicare health coverage starts is about 6 months. Anyone with comments on cancelling or continuing the Medicare insurance will be appreciated. Thank you.

mrosephotoActive member20 December 2018 00:01:24

We have explored that as well. If you are thinking that you definitely will never return to the US then you should probably cancel Medicare. However, while we are planning on living out our life in Europe, nothing is for certain. I feel as though I am insuring against the possiblity of returning. In the meantime since I will be returning once a year to the US for visits, I will utilize the medicare with all of my annual checkups and anything that I need done that is not emergent. As to supplemental insurance which we also have, I have been advised to retain that as well. There is the school of thought that if you give up the supplemental now, it may not be available should you return. My advice is to continue Medicare unless you know for certain you will never return to the US.

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