I have worked 30 years in a school system and contributed to the Maine State Retirement System. My husband has always been self-employed and is of retirement age planning to start collecting this year. I have only paid in 20 quarters of social security in my working career and want to know if I can still collect Medicare (my insurance will be too expensive when I retire) and if my husband passes away before me, how much am I eligible to collect from his social security (percentage). Thank you.

Hi,

Yes, it sounds like you'll be able to qualify for Medicare coverage at age 65 based on your husband's Social Security credits as long as he's at least age 62 at that time. You could also potentially qualify for spousal and/or survivor benefits on your husband's record, but it sounds like your benefits would likely be subject to a full or partial offset based on the Government Pension Offset (GPO) provision (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10007.pdf).

The GPO provision can cause any spousal or widow(er) benefits for which a person would otherwise qualify to be offset by 2/3rds of the amount of any pensions that they receive that are based on their government work which was exempt from Social Security taxes. Government work includes work at any level of government in the U.S., including work for federal, state, county or municipal governmental agencies.

Normally, you could receive up to 100% of your husband's benefit rate as a widow, but it sounds like your potential widow's benefits would likely be offset by 2/3rds of the amount of your pension from the school system. That could reduce your widow's rate to as little as zero depending on the relative amounts of your husband's Social Security benefit rate and your pension from the school system.

Best, Jerry