My wife is turning 65 in April, 2017. She is still working for an employer with over 20 employees, is covered by a good group health plan, but figures she should sign up for the free Medicare Part A coverage, obviously under her own account.

A year from now, at age 66, she wishes to file for social security benefits, but wishes to restrict her application to spousal benefits under my account (just a couple of dollars less than they would be under her own account), but in so doing let her account continue to grow to age 70 at which point she would switch over to her own (then higher by some 32% or so. I think we're OK so far

But my question which no one at either medicare or social security seems to be able to answer is whether her taking medicare under own account at age 65 in any way precludes her from restricting her application for social security at age 66 to spousal benefits under my account? Thanks.

Hi,

Filing for Medicare only at age 65 based on her own Social Security record will not preclude your wife from filing a restricted application for spousal benefits only on your record at age 66.

The only minor complication involved is that her Medicare claim number would initially be her own Social Security number (SSN) ending with the letter T. It would then change to your SSN ending with the letter B when she files for spousal benefits, only to change again to her own SSN followed by the letter A when she applies for retirement benefits at age 70. This does not affect the Medicare coverage itself, but your wife may need to notify her doctors and other health providers when the changes occur.

Best, Jerry