Hi Mr.Larry I wanted to know if I retired at the age of 66 full retirement age and have health insur ance on my job ,and have Medicare and never used it yet and have Cigna Insurance can I switch to Medicare instead.If I retired now I might not have enough to retired on my late husband benefits,I wonder can I draw my retirement and his benefits also

Hi,

You can apply for Medicare as early as age 65 even if you're still working. However, if you're still working and you're covered by an employer group health plan (EGHP) with at least 20 employees, then your EGHP coverage would be primary and Medicare would be secondary. Your Medicare coverage would change to your primary coverage when you retire or no longer have EGHP coverage as an active employee.

You can't draw both your own Social Security benefits and a full widow's benefit at the same time. If you file for both, the most that you could be paid is the higher of the 2 benefit rates.

It sounds like your best strategy for claiming benefits would likely be one of the following:
1) File for widow's benefits as early as age 60 or as soon as your earnings will permit at least some benefits to be paid, then switch to your own record at age 70; or,
2) File for retirement benefits on your own record as early as age 62 or as soon as your earnings will permit at least some benefits to be paid, then file for unreduced widow's benefits at full retirement age (FRA).

Normally, you would want to start out drawing the lower benefit first and then switch to the higher benefit when it reaches it's highest potential rate. Our software (https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/purchase) could help sort all of this out for you so that you can determine the best strategy for maximizing your benefits.

Best, Jerry