My husband turned 65 in October and retired on Dec. 31, 2012. We both
applied for Medicare and got hit with one of the higher level penalties based
on income from 2011.
The Drug Plan penalty is even more annoying if you only take generic
drugs. You can defer signing up and incur a penalty for life + take a risk
that you won't get sick and require new meds. Based on average life
expectancy, we think it wise to bite the bullet and sign up.
At the moment we have filed an appeal based on a "life changing event",
the event being his retirement w/ no income (unless he does some consulting)
and not currently taking SS benefits.
We have spoken to several people from SS on the phone but no one is sure
if retirement will override the 2 years of penalties we face (2012 income
similar to 2011). However, they did encourage us to file an appeal and get a
ruling. Ours seems like a common situation but no one seems to have
answers.
This whole Medicare process has opened our eyes regarding W-2G's b/c we
were tipped into a higher level penalty category by a couple of thousand
dollars. With three W-2G's already this year, we are rethinking our playing
strategy even though our income will be much reduced.
If anyone has any personal knowledge of the likely outcome of our appeal,
please e-mail me or post online. I'll report back after we get an
official decision.
Thanks,
B
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