Social Security-Medicare Eligibility for Non-Resident Spouse

[t2188na]

Hello,

Background:
I am a resident alien living with my wife (not a resident alien or US citizen) in Windsor Ontario Canada. I have been working in the US for 30 years and been paying fully into Social Security all of that time and will be able to collect (paid into it contiguously for more than 40 quarters).

I am 57 my wife is 65. I have a US Healthcare plan with my US Employer. As with many US Healthcare plans upon retirement, the benefits are structured such that a retired employee have Medicare part A & part B which pays first and then the company benefit plan pays the difference so I need her to have Medicare part A & B. I want her to have Medicare so that we can use the US Healthcare System when we travel or spend part of the Winter in the US, move there etc.

Question:
Is she eligible for Medicare part A and part B? If she is eligible I need a US reference (tax code, publication reference, etc.) I can point to, to make my case to Social Security.

Urgency:
I need to take care of this as soon as possible because as you know if one does not apply at 65, one is penalized for part B premiums the longer one waits to apply.
I have a very short window to take care of this. Less than two weeks.

If I posted this in the wrong board, I apologize.

Thank you.

[nelsona]

I think you'd need to get in touch with the SSA on this one.

The facts that she is living outside US abd the fact that she is still covered by you at your job complicates matters. i determining if she should or neeeds to start paying A coverage.

At the same time you can figure out what her SS benefit will be.