Social Security And Medicare

For those that opt not to file for benefits prior to age 65 it is critical that you understand how Social Security and Medicare interact with one another. Far too often, people choose to delay collecting Social Security benefits only to discover later their Medicare premiums were permanently increased because of their failure to elect timely elect benefits.  More importantly, many unsuspecting workers don’t have the benefit of an expert guiding them through the process and are unaware that if they delay making the election of benefits as required by the SSA mandates, their premiums for Part B & Part D can skyrocket.

Eligible Medicare recipients who do not sign up for Medicare Part B during the enrollment window based on their date of birth will be penalized by Social Security for  failing to do so via a premium increase of 10% for each 12 month period the recipient was eligible for benefits but did not enroll.  The penalty for Part D coverage is 1% for each month missed.

This increased premium can be significant and is applied for the remainder of the individual’s life.  For example, if a worker fails to file for Medicare at age 65 and waits  until age 70 to do so,  when he finally applies, his premiums can be 50% higher than they would have been had he filed at 65