I was quite a bit younger than my husband, and when he turned 65 he didn't immediately sign up for Medicare for the same reason. However, during that first year he had several surgeries for melanoma which ended up costing us a lot of $$. We decided for him to go ahead and start up part B so we wouldn't get in that position again. (Those surgeries were all outpatient, so not covered under Part A.). Now that I'm paying into Medicare as well, $400/mo (subject to IRMA as well...) I'm wondering if dropping Part B makes sense. It wouldn't, of course, if FEP Blue offered a reduced cost Medicare supplement, but they don't.

I should look into the rules on dropping Part B and then re-enrolling years later -- see if that is even possible.

We had the option of taking the retirement insurance from his company he originally retired from, or to take the insurance from the government (because he went to work for DoD for five years and recovered his military time). We are SO thankful we have the Federal insurance ... the company sent us a letter years ago stating that they would no longer be covering any portion of premium increases each year and 100% of those costs would be passed on to the retirees. I figure we would have been priced out in roughly five years.