Retiree Waits for Medicare

Question: I retired last year taking Social Security at 62 even though I knew I wouldn’t receive Medicare with this retirement. Now that I am 63 I have found a few medical costs that have been bothersome as I don’t have health insurance at this point and have had to pay all the costs myself. Isn’t the fact that a person is eligible for Social Security at 62, but not eligible for Medicare until they are 65, a form of discrimination? When you take Social Security at 62, you are penalized if you work, receive a check of a little over $500 a month, but do not fit into the category of being eligible for Medicare. Why?--D.B.

Answer: Is it a form of discrimination? In a way, perhaps it is, but anytime you’ve got gigantic programs like Social Security and Medicare all entwined around each other you’ve got ceilings, limits and conditions that are, purely and simply, arbitrary. Even full Social Security benefits at age 65 is arbitrary. Why 65? Prince Otto Von Bismark in the latter part of the 19th Century is believed to have come up with 65 as the mandatory retirement age for the German military, and virtually everyone since then has jumped on the bandwagon, including Congress in the 1930s.

What made Von Bismark settle on 65? Just as Congress set 65 as the age for full Social Security benefits, it also set 62 as the first year for early retirement (why 62? why not 61? or 63?) but withheld Medicare benefits until 65. The horrendous cost of the program if it were extended to those between the ages of 62 and 65 being the prime consideration. Social Security administrators, themselves, are frank in admitting that there are unfairnesses in the program, but they are unfairnesses that are mandated by Congress, and they are going to happen, good intentions notwithstanding, whenever some age is plucked out of thin air and made either the floor, or the ceiling, of benefits.

The old question is relevant: Where do you draw the line? If you made age 62 (why 62? why not 60?) the age for full benefits, then, because of costs, you would have to restrict early retirement to those reaching at least age 59 and, again, ineligible for Medicare. You’ve got a potentially valid point. I admit it, and Social Security admits it. But what’s the answer?

Q: In your recent column on Medicare, Part B, you said that as long as you have coverage from your employer, you can’t sign up for it until you physically stop working. This is wrong. I turned 65 in May and am continuing to work. I have full medical coverage and did sign up for Part B and am paying the extra $24.80 a month. My medical carrier (Kaiser) recommended it and so did the people at Social Security. Please correct your error.--B.C.

A: Which I do, gladly, if, indeed, it’s an error. Whether it is, or not, seems to depend on to whom you talk to at Social Security. The consensus I received before was that you could not sign up while still working and while still covered by your employer. The one dissension, which certainly supports what you are clearly doing, was that: “It’s possible, but it almost never pays--you’re just duplicating your coverage.” But the weight of the argument is certainly on your side.

Campbell cannot answer mail personally but will respond in this column to consumer questions of general interest. Write to Consumer VIEWS, You section, The Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles 90053.