{"id":59370,"date":"2024-05-22T18:05:51","date_gmt":"2024-05-22T22:05:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=59370"},"modified":"2024-05-22T18:05:58","modified_gmt":"2024-05-22T22:05:58","slug":"im-working-after-age-65-why-arent-i-exempt-from-medicare-part-b-premium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2024\/05\/im-working-after-age-65-why-arent-i-exempt-from-medicare-part-b-premium\/","title":{"rendered":"I\u2019m Working after age 65; Why Aren\u2019t I Exempt from Medicare Part B Premium?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Why, as I continue to work after age 65 and have FICA taxes taken from my check, am I – or anyone – also compelled under the threat of penalties, rate increases, etc. to immediately take Medicare Part B? Am I not then effectively paying into the system twice?\u00a0As more and more people over 65 continue to work, isn’t that a consideration that should be evaluated by Congress – if one is working past 65, above a specific level of income and paying FICA taxes, the Medicare Part B premium is waived?\u00a0Signed: Working Senior<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Dear Working Senior:<\/em><\/strong> FYI, 6.2% of the FICA payroll taxes you pay while working goes to Social Security, and another 1.45% goes to fund Medicare Part A (hospitalization coverage, which is free to you). None of the FICA payroll tax you pay from your work earnings goes to fund Medicare Part B (coverage for outpatient services), which is the part of Medicare for which you must pay a premium. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Said another way, your FICA payroll taxes do fund Medicare Part A, which is free to you, but do not provide any funding for Medicare Part B. Part B is funded from two primary sources \u2013 the premiums paid by beneficiaries, and the federal government from the general Treasury. Premiums from enrollees pay for about 25% of Part B healthcare expenses and the remaining 75% of Part B operating expenses are paid from the general U.S. Treasury (not from Social Security money). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, it\u2019s necessary to separate Part B from your thinking about the payroll taxes you pay while working \u2013 you\u2019re not paying anything to fund Part B through your FICA taxes. You aren\u2019t compelled to enroll in Part B (it\u2019s optional), but if you don\u2019t enroll during your initial enrollment period (3 months on either side of the month you turn 65) and don\u2019t have other equivalent \u201ccreditable\u201d coverage from an employer, and you enroll in Part B later, a late enrollment penalty will apply (10% additional premium for each full year after age 65 you go without creditable healthcare coverage). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, your premise in suggesting that Part B be free (the premium waived) if you\u2019re working over a certain age or after an amount of time contributing to the program isn\u2019t valid, because no one contributes to Medicare Part B through FICA payroll taxes \u2013 Part B beneficiary contributions are only made through premiums paid by those enrolled in it. And you don\u2019t need to enroll in Part B if you have \u201ccreditable” healthcare coverage from an employer. The Part B non-enrollment penalty only applies if you enroll after your initial enrollment period has expired and didn\u2019t have \u201ccreditable\u201d healthcare coverage after you turned 65. \u201cCreditable\u201d is a group plan with more than 20 participants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is intended for information purposes only and does not represent legal or financial guidance. It presents the opinions and interpretations of the AMAC Foundation\u2019s staff, trained and accredited by the National Social Security Association (NSSA). NSSA and the AMAC Foundation and its staff are not affiliated with or endorsed by the Social Security Administration or any other governmental entity. To submit a question, visit our website (<\/em>amacfoundation.org\/programs\/social-security-advisory<\/a>) or email us at<\/em> <\/em><\/strong>ssadvisor@amacfoundation.org<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why, as I continue to work after age 65 and have FICA taxes taken from my check, am I – or anyone – also compelled under the threat of penalties,… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":55845,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2696],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59370"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59370"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59371,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59370\/revisions\/59371"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}