Opt out of what? Medicare? Part A or Part B? You need to talk to the Social Security Administration at length about this. There was a court case in 2012 ( you can read the brief at https://www.cato.org/publications/legal-briefs/hall-v-sebelius) that determined that if you want to disenroll from medicare Part A, you would have to pay back all the social security benefits you already received and would not get any more. Ouch! I found the following info by googling your question - "Opting out of Medicare Part A would render you ineligible to collect Social Security and if you’ve already started collecting Social Security, you would be responsible for refunding all the money you received. This rule stems from Hall v. Sebelius, in which three retired federal employees receiving Social Security Retirement benefits wanted to drop their Medicare Part A coverage. The ruling was against the retirees, citing the original law Congress enacted when creating the Medicare program. The judge said, “requiring a mechanism for plaintiffs and others in their situation to ‘dis-enroll’ would be contrary to congressional intent, which was to provide ‘mandatory’ benefits under Medicare Part A for those receiving Social Security Retirement benefits." I would really do some in-depth research on this - Part A benefits cost you nothing to maintain - there is a premium for Part B - but you can choose not to enroll for Part B. If your retirement depends on social security income, don't mess it up. The folks at ssa.gov can also confirm for you the rules about what happens if you are still working in a foreign country past retirement and how it might affect how much social security you can still collect.
Opt out of what? If you paid enough into the Social Security System you have earned the retirement. You would be better off waiting until you turn 66 to receive your maximum amount. If you are talking about opting out of Medicare, you would need to seek legal counsel that is experienced with Social Security retirement and out of country residents.
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I found the following info by googling your question -
"Opting out of Medicare Part A would render you ineligible to collect Social Security and if you’ve already started collecting Social Security, you would be responsible for refunding all the money you received. This rule stems from Hall v. Sebelius, in which three retired federal employees receiving Social Security Retirement benefits wanted to drop their Medicare Part A coverage. The ruling was against the retirees, citing the original law Congress enacted when creating the Medicare program. The judge said, “requiring a mechanism for plaintiffs and others in their situation to ‘dis-enroll’ would be contrary to congressional intent, which was to provide ‘mandatory’ benefits under Medicare Part A for those receiving Social Security Retirement benefits."
I would really do some in-depth research on this - Part A benefits cost you nothing to maintain - there is a premium for Part B - but you can choose not to enroll for Part B. If your retirement depends on social security income, don't mess it up. The folks at ssa.gov can also confirm for you the rules about what happens if you are still working in a foreign country past retirement and how it might affect how much social security you can still collect.
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