Poll: For U.S. social security recipients who reside in Thailand, do you use a U.S. or Thai address?

[Jingthing]

Voting in THIS poll is definitely anonymous.

While the forum owners could presumably know how you voted why would they care?

Certainly the US government won't know how you voted.

[Jingthing]

35 minutes ago, Sheryl said:

And, most importantly, you must be resident in the coverage area of the plan (not just in the US but the specific state or group of states the plan covers) for at least 6 months of the year. If you are not and this gets discovered could disqualify you. But may account for the small numbers who prefer to use US address.

 

 

It would disqualify you but here we're getting into some can of worms areas.

 

Do different government agencies routinely communicate?

 

IRS, passport use records, etc.

 

If you state a US address for SS and Medicare and a Thai address for IRS is that a problem?

 

Yes we paid into the Medicare program and living abroad can't use it. Is that fair? Obviously not  But is posing as a US resident in order to get some limited benefit for what we paid justifiable?

Each individual must decide such things for themselves.

 

[Skallywag]

1 hour ago, Jingthing said:

Not irrelevant. 

Using a US address means the proof of life letter is not required.

Also I recently learned Medicare Advantage can be used abroad if you use a US address  

That's a big deal

Your address must be the same for SS and Medicare.

I read the opposite about Medicare advantage plan!?  

"When you move abroad, you should disenroll from and stop paying premiums for your Medicare Advantage Plan or stand-alone prescription drug plan (Part D). You are not eligible for these plans because you live outside the plan service area, and your coverage must end if you live outside of the United States. It is your responsibility to notify your plan that you are moving."   https://www.medicareinteractive.org/get-answers/medicare-health-coverage-options/medicare-and-living-abroad/medicare-advantage-and-part-d-for-those-who-live-abroad

[Jingthing]

12 minutes ago, Skallywag said:

I read the opposite about Medicare advantage plan!?  

"When you move abroad, you should disenroll from and stop paying premiums for your Medicare Advantage Plan or stand-alone prescription drug plan (Part D). You are not eligible for these plans because you live outside the plan service area, and your coverage must end if you live outside of the United States. It is your responsibility to notify your plan that you are moving."   https://www.medicareinteractive.org/get-answers/medicare-health-coverage-options/medicare-and-living-abroad/medicare-advantage-and-part-d-for-those-who-live-abroad

Normally.

Watch the video.

To use the tactic in the video you need to contact the broker.

To use you must have Part A and B.

He will enroll you in an Advantage plan for your US address zipcode that has full year travel benefits.

You must drop anything else like supplementary drug plan.

It requires NOT informing of your Thai address.

No point in asking more questions  UNTIL you watch the video.

I am not staying that you should do this. There are very good reasons not to. But it is interesting. 

 

 

Note that it would be better to comment on the Medicare Advantage uses for expats topic here:

 

Edited March 9, 2023 by Jingthing

[Yellowtail]

18 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

It would disqualify you but here we're getting into some can of worms areas.

 

Do different government agencies routinely communicate?

 

IRS, passport use records, etc.

 

If you state a US address for SS and Medicare and a Thai address for IRS is that a problem?

Whether or not one would get caught is not the same as not qualifying. 

 

If I were filing claims over and over in a foreign country while claiming US residency getting caught would not surprise me.

 

The question is what would the penalty be? 

 

18 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Yes we paid into the Medicare program and living abroad can't use it. Is that fair? Obviously not  But is posing as a US resident in order to get some limited benefit for what we paid justifiable?

Each individual must decide such things for themselves.

We get plenty of benefits we don't pay for. I do not believe I can use my Thai SS medical anywhere but Thailand. 

 

They didn't tell us to move...

[Jingthing]

5 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

Whether or not one would get caught is not the same as not qualifying. 

 

If I were filing claims over and over in a foreign country while claiming US residency getting caught would not surprise me.

 

The question is what would the penalty be? 

 

We get plenty of benefits we don't pay for. I do not believe I can use my Thai SS medical anywhere but Thailand. 

 

They didn't tell us to move...

There are strong arguments not to do this. But watch the video anyway. It's not for things like cancer. It's for things like acute emergencies  accidents, etc. 

So for most people not over and over claims.

More like a just in case thing.

If you're expecting me to argue why you should do this, no I won't do that. That doesn't reflect my position on the topic.

Edited March 9, 2023 by Jingthing

[EVENKEEL]

1 hour ago, Sheryl said:

Hardly relevant when the poll is anonymous.

 

It has only been up a day, applies only to Americans, and traffic in this sub forum is not all  that heavy.

Nothing is anonymous. Not if it matters. 

[Sheryl]

17 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Normally.

Watch the video.

To use the tactic in the video you need to contact the broker.

To use you must have Part A and B.

He will enroll you in an Advantage plan for your US address zipcode that has full year travel benefits.

You must drop anything else like supplementary drug plan.

It requires NOT informing of your Thai address.

No point in asking more questions  UNTIL you watch the video.

I am not staying that you should do this. There are very good reasons not to. But it is interesting. 

 

 

Note that it would be better to comment on the Medicare Advantage uses for expats topic here:

 

These plans (some of them not all) will cover care abroad only in an  emergency and they will surely look closely at travel dates at that point. If they find you have actually been living abroad not only will they deny that claim they will void your policy altogether. 

[EVENKEEL]

1 hour ago, KhunLA said:

But does Medicare care, as that would be the only advantage to changing back to US address.   IF, Medicare Advantage isn't silly price vs my next med oops ????

 

And if Medicare Advantage is deducted from my SS DD, that will affect my monthly retirement qualification for visa.

With a US Address they automatically enroll you in Part B $170/mo, My income was in the 100K range that year so Part B goes to $230/mo  Last month while on a visit to US I sent in form to cancel Part B and it was successful. I have B/C-B/S through my old job, thank you Uncle Sam. Which works well here in Thailand.

[Jingthing]

21 minutes ago, Sheryl said:

These plans (some of them not all) will cover care abroad only in an  emergency and they will surely look closely at travel dates at that point. If they find you have actually been living abroad not only will they deny that claim they will void your policy altogether. 

One would think that is the case.

However the broker in the video says he has hundreds of expat clients and a record of successful claims.

Believe him or not.

 

He seems to be credible person but that and 5 dollars gets a coffee at Starbucks.

 

I agree this is for emergency events as abroad it's basically travel insurance.

Edited March 9, 2023 by Jingthing

[Sheryl]

Just now, Jingthing said:

One would think that is the case.

However the broker in the videos says he has hundreds of expat clients and a record of successful claims.

Believe him or not.

Personally, not.

 

He is selling domething so every reason to exaggerate or lie

[Jingthing]

17 minutes ago, EVENKEEL said:

With a US Address they automatically enroll you in Part B $170/mo, My income was in the 100K range that year so Part B goes to $230/mo  Last month while on a visit to US I sent in form to cancel Part B and it was successful. I have B/C-B/S through my old job, thank you Uncle Sam. Which works well here in Thailand.

If you have a foreign address on record with SS you are NOT automatically enrolled in Part B at 65. 

[Jingthing]

4 minutes ago, Sheryl said:

Personally, not.

 

He is selling domething so every reason to exaggerate or lie

I'm not saying you're wrong  but to be fair we can't really know.

 

A possible factor in the success of his clients could be that they are in Mexico and Panama.

 

For obvious geographical reasons there are many more part time expats snowbirds there.

 

So perhaps they are getting less scrutiny?

[Jingthing]

For those that don't know this already, other than laziness to update to a foreign address many expats keep their US address to avoid the need to deal with the annual proof of life letter.

 

Ir is my impression  that I can't prove that expats in Latin America widely keep their US address on record not only because they might be snowbirds byt also because the postal service is poor or nonexistent in most of those countries. 

 

Thailand's posted service is at least OK.

Edited March 9, 2023 by Jingthing

[Sheryl]

48 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

 

Thailand's posted service is at least OK.

Not where I live!

 

Hit and miss at best. I fail to receive at least 25% of mail sent. 

[Jingthing]

1 hour ago, Sheryl said:

Not where I live!

 

Hit and miss at best. I fail to receive at least 25% of mail sent. 

Yeah that's not OK but it does beat 0%.

[Yellowtail]

I seem to get all my mail, but how would I know if I didn't? 

[Jingthing]

33 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

I seem to get all my mail, but how would I know if I didn't? 

If you're expecting something 

...

[jerrymahoney]

I use my Thai address because, when I applied for Social Security, I first gave them my proxy US address. The next question was:

 

Do you live at this address?

 

And that was that.

[Jingthing]

2 hours ago, jerrymahoney said:

I use my Thai address because, when I applied for Social Security, I first gave them my proxy US address. The next question was:

 

Do you live at this address?

 

And that was that.

Well not if you had said yes.

It's common for expats to be faux US expats to smooth things out with financial institutions, etc 

[Issanman]

I changed from a Thai address to a US address because they said I would not be able to access my online social security account with a foreign address.

[Jingthing]

8 minutes ago, Issanman said:

I changed from a Thai address to a US address because they said I would not be able to access my online social security account with a foreign address.

Well that isn't true.

I just used it a few days ago with my usual Thai address.

There are harder rules now for setting it up initially though.

 

[jerrymahoney]

8 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Well not if you had said yes.

It's common for expats to be faux US expats to smooth things out with financial institutions, etc 

I did not live at that  address.

 

Things with my US-based financial institutions, etc., are smooth. I routinely use them for transactions to/from Thailand with no VPN.

Edited March 9, 2023 by jerrymahoney

[Jingthing]

4 hours ago, jerrymahoney said:

I did not live at that  address.

 

Things with my US-based financial institutions, etc., are smooth. I routinely use them for transactions to/from Thailand with no VPN.

A separate topic but many expats internationally have encountered US financial institutions that are hostile to expats. So faking US residence is a very common tactic.

 

But as pointed out on the topic about Medicare Advantage faking US residence to SS and Medicare is at a higher level of implications than to financial Institutions.

[Jingthing]

About the poll results so far if they reflect reality I am surprised at the low percentage using US addresses. I would have guessed about 40 percent. 

[KhunLA]

18 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

A separate topic but many expats internationally have encountered US financial institutions that are hostile to expats. So faking US residence is a very common tactic.

 

But as pointed out on the topic about Medicare Advantage faking US residence to SS and Medicare is at a higher level of implications than to financial Institutions.

Yea, fraud on an insurance form, allows them to not honor a claim, way too easy.   A financial institution, won't cost you money if found out, or wasted premiums you paid for years, just have to move your money elsewhere.

 

I am actually surprised my brokerage hasn't suggested I close my accounts, although they may not be able to, legally.  Have a few IRAs with them, and may be the legal part.   

 

Use 1 savings/trading account where my company pension goes (only real reason I need them), which I then transfer to another 'money management' account of theirs, that is fee free on int'l ATM use.

 

My only transactions for past 10ish yrs have been, deposit twice, now once a month, withdrawal (TH ATM) every other month, fee free.   Easy to see, I'm not in the USA.

[Sheryl]

21 hours ago, Yellowtail said:

Hello Sheryl, I started Medicare last year, how would I go about using it in the US in the event I had to? 

 

Do I have to be signed up somewhere or can I just walk it? 

 

You can just make an appointment with any doctor/clinic/hospital that accepts Medicare. Many will list this on their website. If in doubt call the office and ask. Medicare without a Medicare Advantage or Medigap plan is called :original Medicare."

 

Make sure you have at minimum both parts A and B.  And note there are deductibles and copays such that costs can be significant. And drug costs off the wall.  If you anticipate getting a lot of curative care in US than Part D (drug cover) is highly adviosable.

 

Bring Medicare card with you and show it when you check in.  Be prepared for billing/office staff to constantly ask  for your "supplemental" as it is rare in US for people to have only original Medicare. (If you actually spend 6 months or more a year in US then you should get a supplemental, but most of us do not).

 

 

 

 

[Sheryl]

36 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

About the poll results so far if they reflect reality I am surprised at the low percentage using US addresses. I would have guessed about 40 percent. 

I suspect usage of Thai addresses went up a lot after SSA started IDD to Thai banks

[Issanman]

11 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Well that isn't true.

I just used it a few days ago with my usual Thai address.

There are harder rules now for setting it up initially though.

 

I was told that in person at the St Petersburg, Florida Social Security office.

Apparently YMMV.

[jerrymahoney]

45 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

A separate topic but many expats internationally have encountered US financial institutions that are hostile to expats. So faking US residence is a very common tactic.

I thought this topic is whether or not you make a false declaration of residence to the US Social Security office.