Medicare: Advantage vs. Medigap

In My Humble Opinion
81

I think he’s saying that you can’t contribute to an HSA while on Medicare. When he started SS late, they retroactively enrolled him in Medicare Part A dating back a few years. And thereby disqualified those years’ HSA contributions. Which he then had to back out of his HSA and also pay income taxes on. To undo the effect of making those now-wrongful pre-tax contributions in prior years.

I agree that you can’t contribute to an HSA while on Medicare. Even if you have, like I do, a high deductible medigap plan.

But I think something is garbled in the rest of that story about Medicare part A retroactivity. Or he got screwed by a clueless worker at SSA or Medicare.

82

I waited almost two years past age 70 to start SS, contributing to the HSA the whole time. If I wanted the retroactive SS, I had to take retroactive part A as well. Paying taxes on the HSA money was cheaper than giving up the SS. Sorting out the taxes was a pain.

83

No, I won’t. My nursing ethics forbids sharing details, I’m obligated to protect their privacy and confidentiality. I’ve been a nurse for 44+ years, that’s many thousands of patients. I’m going to honor their trust, their families’ trust and my employers trust.