<p>Thank you fendergirl for your kind offer. After I talk to our insurance company, the office manager, etc. I may take you up on it to confirm what I hear!</p>
<p>Onward - I believe the person OR their spouse has to have contributed the required number of years in order to qualify for Medicare.</p>
<p>From the information I have received on this thread and what I have read in the links posted, I think this is HOPEFULLY where we stand - </p>
<p>Husband will sign up for Medicare Part A in the three months prior to his January birthday (it is free). Since he is still employed (and plans to be for some time to come), he will keep his regular BC/BS insurance through the office and WON’T sign up for Medicare Part B and won’t buy a Medigap policy at this time. Since he will be keeping BC/BS through the office, our 24 year old daughter and I will be able to remain on the policy - D until she turns 26 and me until DH retires. Since he is not signing up for Medicare Part B because he is still employed, he will NOT be assessed the 10% per year penalty for not signing up when he was first eligible. If DH husband works until he is 72, I will be 18 months away from 65 and should be able to buy COBRA to fill in that gap. If he does not work that long, we will have to cross that bridge when come to it as to what I would do for health insurance. In that length of time, the entire health insurance scene could be totally different.</p>
<p>I just need to spend some time on the phone next week confirming the above with SEVERAL sources to make sure everyone is telling me the same thing!</p>
<p>My thanks to everyone who posted! As always, the CC bunch are an intelligent, informed group!</p>
<p>I have always carried our family’s health insurance through my job (H is self-employed) and when I was laid off in 2010 I paid COBRA for more months than I needed to (before I discovered cheaper short-term options). I started my new job a month before H turned 65 (I’m 7 years younger). After running the numbers and weighing the pros and cons, we decided that he would enroll in Medicare at that point, and then, when my 90-day probationary period was up, I enrolled myself and our daughter in the new work-related plan and dropped the short-term family coverage I’d had between the two jobs. She’s now a grad student and still on my policy. Funnily H who declares he’s “never going to retire” decided to start taking Social Security payments when he turned 66 earlier this year; didn’t seem any really persuasive reason not to.</p>
<p>This says I’m expected to log off in under 30 years, just about the mean of my parents and G Parents, but the upper quartile has me hanging around till the low 90s, and DW may be here 40 years hence. </p>
<p>I’m not confident in testing if I have enough assets and resources for that period. In my job in the late 70s, I was making $16K/year which covered everything and left me with play money. There were whole-life proposals that paid off a hundred grand at 65 that sounded like a princely amount (which thankfully I didn’t buy). </p>
<p>So the amounts in our savings that seemingly look good today may be nothing in 35 years’ time especially if the portfolio underperforms inflation, and we pay taxes on gains that really weren’t. I’ve looked at data from the bogleheads and other sites about portfolio mixes and safe withdrawal rates, but still nothing that leaves me feeling secure. I think my ancestors had it worked out in a less worrysome manner - kids were their top priority and investment when they were young, and they took care of you in the twilight. That paradigm has changed, of course.</p>
<p>You may wish to check out possibly becoming a perennial student at your local in-state CC or U, and get student insurance that way if you can’t find a job that will give you insurance. In our state, if you work at least 20 hours/week, you are entitled to get medical insurance as a benefit. Our state CC & Us also offer student medical insurance–it isn’t necessarily the BEST plan, but at least it is available and I don’t believe you need to take many courses to qualify. Tuition at CC is still very inexpensive.</p>
<p>I agree with Dad<em>of</em>3, eventhough H & I are conservative financially, there is still no way to expect to retire if we have to plan way way ahead. But as I said to my husband, we have not made any financial booboos since we’ve been together and hopefully there won’t be many in the future. Worst comes worst, I can survive on rice & beans in my 90s or maybe that will be what my teeth can afford. :D</p>
<p>DH’s office manager is going to get a quote from the BC/BS person who handles their policy for the group. They are a small office with some employees who have some significant health issues (didn’t know this before talking with the office manager), so H pays $975 a month for a family of 3 (no health issues) for just major medical with a $2,000 deductible. </p>
<p>She will price H enrolling in Medicare Part A (free), Part B and a Medigap plan. I could get a major medical Affordablue plan through them. We would have 24 year old D get insurance through her medical school vs us staying on the plan we are on now as he continues to be employed.</p>