Q. 1. Can someone switch from Blue Cross/Blue Shield to Medicare Part B at age 71?
2. Should it be done?
3. If yes, how can it be done, and what are the costs?
I am 71 and self-employed (since 2011), covered under my wife’s federal Blue Cross/Blue Shield plan. My wife has been retired for a few years and she also turned 71 in 2012.
My wife was just operated for a brain tumor and is being scheduled for radiation therapy and chemotherapy.
A. While your wife could disenroll from the Federal Employees Health Benefits program and both of you enroll in Medicare Part B, what she gained by no longer having to pay premiums for the former would likely be offset by the premiums you’d both have to pay for the latter. Although each of you would have to pay $99 per month in 2013, the fact that neither of you enrolled when you were first eligible would mean that those premiums would be increased by 10 percent for every year you failed to do so.
Further, the benefits you both now receive from Blue Cross/Blue Shield are substantial. While adding Part B would increase that coverage, dropping the FEHB coverage would adversely affect it. Further, if she dropped her FEHB enrollment, she would never be able to re-enroll.
