Letting a senior expat use your address as their permanent Medicare mailing address

A friend has a brother and sister-in-law who are planning on moving to Mexico permanently. I think it’s a dumb move especially because the guy has chronic health problems, but nobody asked me or my friend for our opinions.

The couple has asked my friend if they can use her home address in Texas as their permanent mailing address for Medicare. Neither is old enough for Medicare yet, but they will be in a few years. I don’t know any other details.

This must be a fairly common practice among senior citizen expats. What are the implications, upsides, downsides, liabilities, etc. Is it a good idea for my friend to agree to it?

It sounds like fraud, so your friend would have to understand the risks of being in a scheme to defraud Medicare. If they figure it out and try to recover any reimbursements they sent, they may go after your friend since she is in the US and would easily reachable by the US courts. Maybe if the couple had asked something like “Can we have some bills forwarded to you and you forward them to us?” then your friend could claim ignorance about what was going on.

I don’t know that it’s fraud- but Medicare doesn’t usually cover care outside the US, so it most likely will not cover any care they receive in Mexico. And I don’t think you can have separate mailing addresses for SS and Medicare. I’m kind of wondering why they want to provide a US mailing address- as far as I can tell, if they live in Mexico and use a Mexico address, they will be covered if they come to the US for medical treatment - and treatment in Mexico won’t be covered no matter which address they use, so I don’t know the point of using an address in Texas.

It’s an interesting question – one that I think is answered generally here:

https://www.medicareinteractive.org/get-answers/medicare-health-coverage-options/medicare-and-living-abroad/medicare-coverage-for-those-who-live-permanently-outside-the-united-states

If you have moved outside the United States permanently, you should decide whether to keep Medicare Parts A and B. Remember, you can have Medicare while you live abroad, but it will usually not cover the care you receive.

Most people qualify for premium-free Part A, meaning you will pay nothing for coverage. If you must pay a premium for Part A, be aware of the high monthly cost for maintaining Part A coverage. Remember, if you are enrolled in premium-free Part A, you cannot disenroll without having to pay all benefits you’ve received back to the Social Security Administration (SSA), including Social Security monthly retirement or disability payments and claims paid by Medicare Part A. While you live abroad, you can apply for and receive Social Security retirement benefits if you are a U.S. citizen. In some countries, you can receive Social Security retirement benefits if you or your spouse worked and paid Social Security taxes in the U.S. for at least 10 years. If you were collecting Social Security benefits when you became Medicare-eligible, you may have been automatically enrolled in Part A. For more information about your eligibility for Social Security benefits while you live abroad, contact your nearest Social Security office, Consulate, or Embassy.

Keeping Part B may not be worth the cost if you live abroad permanently and do not take frequent trips to the U.S. To stay enrolled in Part B, you must continue to pay monthly Part B premiums even though Medicare will not cover your care.

Provided these expats are clear that this Brother and SIL’s address is a mailing address, and not a physical address, they might be okay.

It is certainly not fraud if it is not done with the purpose of obtaining benefits you are not entitled to. And if your billing health care provider in not in the US, Medicare provides no benefits at all.

It is very difficult to resign from Medicare, even if your an ex-pat. Medicare will keep on deducting your premiums from your SS, and good luck trying to tell them to stop. Giving them a Mexican mailing address sure as hell ain’t gonna do it.

I have a US bank account and my SS payments (as well as the recent $1400 Covid relief payment) go directly into it, but both the bank and the SS system know my Canadian address. In fact my wife and I got a letter here announcing that $2800 had been deposited into that account.

I don’t know any legal reason for using a fake address and illegal schemes cannot be discussed on the boards.

WHOA! Is this an “illegal scheme”??

Maybe it would be helpful to clarify – if you can – whether this couple wants to use their friend’s address only for Medicare or as their US-based address for all mail – presumably to have your friend forward it to them in Mexico.

I used a mail forwarding service (private PO box that would overnight me my mail pretty much anywhere in the world) when I traveled. It was relatively cheap, fee-for-service, and based in Miami.

It was also useful for getting stuff from online retailers who don’t ship the country you’re visiting.

I think that is the plan.

I haven’t reached the age that I’m getting any SS, but I do have a US bank account, and both my bank and the IRS are quite aware of my Swiss address. Even got the same letter. No idea why the third stimulus check got direct deposited after the first two were both sent as checks.

I do not have an address that I use in the U.S. as a valid mailing address. My husband has one report sent to his sister, because they were (are?) not able to handle addresses outside of the U.S. No idea if that’s changed.

Seems to me like there truly isn’t fraudulent intent here, since as noted the future-expats won’t really gain any benefits by having a US-based address for such mailings.

I’d suggest that they would do better off using a forward service - removes the stress on the stay-here friend, removes the expats from having to deal with the stay-here friend’s changing plans, etc.

There’s also a tax implication on the soon-to-be expats, as whatever place they use as their US address will affect their state tax rate. You wouldn’t want to declare a PO box in Manhattan, versus Florida.

As far as health issues: if the friends chose their ultimate location well, I gather healthcare in Mexico is perfectly acceptable if you have the money. Dunno if “pay cash” in Mexico is cheaper than “pay a copay in the US” but it wouldn’t surprise me.

Semi-related anecdote: 30+ years ago, I was on a project in another city, where we all received a housing allowance. If you didn’t maintain a home elsewhere, that allowance would be taxable income. As I was (and am) married and had no plans to move to the other city, it was a non-issue. A bunch of the younger crowd, however, gave up their apartments. One of them (or perhaps a friend who was not going on the project) maintained an apartment in our home town and they all used that place as their official address. A bit dodgy, really - as they could not have all stayed at that apartment if they’d all had to go “home” at once. As far as I know, nobody got caught, and it wasn’t all that clear what the official IRS line was, but they were clearly skirting the spirit of the law at the least.