ArtW, I think Medicare is available once you turn 65. They are separate from SS. That will leave you 3 years to pay instead of 5. If you check to see if you can get Obamacare that can be a very affordable insurance as long as you're reportable income is low. I know there is a lot of negative feedback on Obamacare but look into it yourself because you can't trust the opinions of any politician or media sources all of whom have their spin. I want to my state's website for Obamacare where there was a questionnaire to fill out and they give you your choices of coverage and how much it costs. I tried several times using different income levels and found that if you make less than 18,000/year the cost was between zero and 100 dollars/month if you stayed with the bronze plans.It may have increased since I did that but still much more affordable.
One thing that might help some others to know is I had a client once who was on Medicaid but there were no dentists willing to take him as a patient because they would have to bill at a lesser rate. He called the state agency for Obamacare and for forty bucks a month he got dental insurance through Blue Cross ... suddenly all the dentists didn't seem to have a problem taking him as a patient. Sosome can pick individual items cafeteria style.
