Signing Up for Medicare? Here’s Why You Should Wait on Social Security

There’s a reason many older employees force themselves to work until they turn 65.

Age 65 is when Medicare eligibility typically begins. And many people can’t afford to pay for health insurance on their own, so they purposely keep working to retain coverage until they’re able to get onto Medicare.

If you’re turning 65 and are signing up for Medicare, you may be wondering if you should claim Social Security at the same time.

You’re allowed to file for Social Security at the same time you enroll in Medicare. But whether you should is a different story.

The problem with signing up for Social Security at 65

Social Security eligibility begins at 62. So if you’re enrolling in Medicare at 65, there’s nothing stopping you from claiming Social Security.

The problem, though, is that if you sign up for Social Security at age 65, you won’t be able to collect your monthly benefit in full. Rather, that benefit will be reduced due to the fact that you’re a couple of years shy of full retirement age (FRA).

FRA is 67 for people who were born in 1960 or later. So if you’re turning 65 now, it means that if you were to sign up for Social Security, you’d see your monthly benefit permanently reduced by about 13.33%.

Is that a hit you can afford? Maybe. It depends on your financial situation.

Some people reach retirement age with a nice amount of savings, so much so that while they need some money from Social Security to cover their costs, they don’t necessarily need a lot.

However, if you expect Social Security to be a significant income source for you in retirement, then you may not want to slash your monthly benefit by claiming it early. So in that case, you may want to wait on Social Security if you’re signing up for Medicare on time.

You don’t need Social Security to get Medicare coverage

You may have heard that seniors who are enrolled in Social Security and Medicare at the same time have their monthly Part B premiums paid directly out of their benefits (Part A is usually free). And that’s true. But it doesn’t mean you have to claim Social Security once you’re ready for Medicare.

There’s no penalty for not paying your Medicare premiums out of your Social Security checks.

If you’re not ready to take benefits yet, you can sign up for Medicare only at 65, wait on Social Security, and send Medicare a check from your bank account to cover your premium costs. There are even automatic payment options you can sign up for so you don’t have to think about paying your premiums month after month.

All told, you can sign up for Medicare and Social Security at the same time if that makes sense based on your personal circumstances. But if you’d rather not slash your Social Security benefits for life, then you may want to wait to sign up.

In fact, you should know that delaying Social Security past FRA could boost your monthly benefits substantially for life. So it’s important to think twice before claiming Social Security at 65.

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