Q. If one decides to defer Medicare Part B at age 65 and continue with health care coverage under FEHBP, is there a penalty? I have read that it is 10 percent a year for each year after 65 — is this true? Is there a ceiling on the penalty amount?
A. As long as you or your spouse are currently employed, there won’t be any penalty. You can delay your enrollment in Part B until you are no longer covered under that FEHB plan based on current employment. Then you will have an eight-month, penalty-free period in which you can enroll.
On the other hand, if you are no longer employed, your Part B coverage will be 10 percent for every year you could have been enrolled but weren’t. There is no ceiling on that penalty.
2 Comments
Now that my FEHB health insurance is paying like medicare, will we be offered a supplemental insurance policy like the medicare part B recipients. when I receive medical treatment I’m left with a percentage that I have to pay. When I retired 15 years ago I was led to believe that I didn’t need medicare part b, and until a few years ago I didn’t need it, however now I do need it, as my FEHB insurance is insuffient. I am paying more than the medicare part b recipients and I’m not being offered any kind of supplemental insurance. At this point medicare Part b cost for me would be unaffordable.
There aren’t any efforts by either the Administration or the Congress to do that.