My father, 93 just passed away in São Paulo Brazil. His wife is 92 and Brazilian. She is still alive. I find no reason for her to pay Medicaid cause she will not return to the States. However, she does have Social Security and both have always filed income tax and paid the fees. What should she do? Does she lose Social Security pensions if she does not pay Medicaid?
Not a single simple answer & to me this is more important that trying to get around not having the $100+ a mo taken out for Medicare from the SSA monthly income.
SSA has a pretty detailed section of their website dedicated to this as there are huge amount of SS retirees in Latin America. You can email SSA with ? as well. Some counties (Mexico,Panama) are just easier to retire to & keep SS$ flowing. Good luck!
I don't really understand why Medicare might be an issue now, unless she's just approaching 65. Otherwise, how does the Medicare issue arise now?
She doesn't have to have Medicare if she's turning 65, and if she's in the general age range of your father and doesn't have it yet, I'm not even sure if she could get it.
I think the issue is what do you really think is mandatory when receiving SS?
People do choose not to receive Medicare benefits but typically would have alternate health care coverage.