Medicare benefits are usually for people who reach retirement age or have a disability. If you work and pay Medicare tax, you are eligible to receive Medicare Part A coverage for free. If you choose to keep working instead of retiring, you can also receive Medicare if you meet some Medicare requirements.
Medicare If You Are Working
Generally, to be eligible to receive Medicare, the federal government requires you to be 65 years of age, or younger if you have a disability. People who retire before or at age 65 are automatically enrolled in Medicare Part A and Part B. If you reach 65 years of age but you are still working and paying taxes, you are also eligible to receive Medicare benefits. However, you are not automatically enrolled. You must sign up with the Social Security office to start receiving these benefits. If you have paid Medicare tax, you are eligible for Medicare Part A for free. Otherwise, you must pay monthly premiums for Part A and Part B. If you are younger than 65 years of age and you are receiving Social Security disability benefits, you are automatically enrolled in Medicare after you receive these benefits for 24 months.
Signing Up for Medicare
If you reach Medicare's eligibility age to receive benefits and you are still working, you can contact the Social Security office to sign up for benefits. You can sign up three months before your 65th birthday. The sooner you sign up, the sooner your benefits will start. If you enroll before your month of birth, your coverage starts on the first day of the month of your 65th birthday. Otherwise, it starts on the first of the next month from the month in which you enroll. You have up to three months after your month of birth to enroll in Medicare without paying a late penalty.
Special Enrollment Period
If you are still working when you reach 65 years of age and you do not contact the Social Security office to sign up for Medicare, you are charged higher monthly premiums when you do enroll. However, if your reason for not enrolling is because you are still under your group insurance coverage, when you do sign up for Medicare, you are not charged a penalty as long as you sign up during the special enrollment period. This period lasts up to eight months after your group insurance ends or you retire from work.
Group Insurance and Medicare
If you are still working and you have group insurance when you reach 65 years of age, decide whether to join Medicare now or later. As long as you sign up during the correct enrollment periods, you do not need to pay penalties. You might also be able to join Medicare while you have group insurance, since some group insurance companies work with Medicare. However, others do not and if you join Medicare, you will lose their coverage. Talk to your provider to find out how your insurance works before you sign up for Medicare.
Tags: group insurance, receive Medicare, Social Security, automatically enrolled, eligible receive, eligible receive Medicare
