Leonidas
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
I'm a retired local government employee receiving a pension. Because I was hired before 1986 there were never any contributions made to Social Security from my salary or by my employer. I do have 21 credits from other employment which makes me the rare person who will not be eligible to get into Medicare without paying for it when I turn 65. The health insurance costs for that will be outrageous.
I researched this several years ago and was sure that I could get into Medicare based on my spouse's contribution history. She has enough credits from past employment.
But now divorce looms, and I thought I would still be eligible to apply for Medicare as an ex-spouse using her eligibility. The CFP at my pension system originally said otherwise, claiming that WEP (I think he meant GPO) would prevent me from claiming as a divorced spouse. He later sent me an email saying that he was mistaken and provided this link.
http://treasury.tn.gov/oasi/PDFs/MEDICARE-INFORMATION.pdf
Once again I find myself in the 1% of the population who has a weird financial / tax / retirement situation. I hate that, because finding the right answer can be nearly impossible.
Anybody have any experience or information about this?
I researched this several years ago and was sure that I could get into Medicare based on my spouse's contribution history. She has enough credits from past employment.
But now divorce looms, and I thought I would still be eligible to apply for Medicare as an ex-spouse using her eligibility. The CFP at my pension system originally said otherwise, claiming that WEP (I think he meant GPO) would prevent me from claiming as a divorced spouse. He later sent me an email saying that he was mistaken and provided this link.
http://treasury.tn.gov/oasi/PDFs/MEDICARE-INFORMATION.pdf
Once again I find myself in the 1% of the population who has a weird financial / tax / retirement situation. I hate that, because finding the right answer can be nearly impossible.
Anybody have any experience or information about this?