Background: I am retired but with a little self-employment income from consulting. I am on a Medicare Advantage plan sponsored by my former employer (for its retirees). I pay the premium for the MA plan, as well as the premium for Medicare part B (which is required by the MA plan). In March I married an employed woman whose employer provides her with a good health-insurance plan
My questions:
- Is my Medicare Advantage plan considered a "subsidized group health plan through an employer"(which is disqualifying for SEHID), or simply a group-discounted individual Medicare Advantage policy. I'm guessing the former, since the chart of premiums reads "The Retirement Systems share for Retiree subscribers is 3.06". I assume this would mean I can't deduct the MA premiums.
- Are my Medicare B premiums considered to be for a "subsidized group health plan through employer", since they are required as part of the MA plan ? I'm guessing no, since the instructions explicitly state that Medicare premiums are deductible.
- To the extent I'm able to deduct the Medicare B (and possibly the Medicare Advantage) premiums, can I deduct them for the months after I became married to my spouse, who had a "subsidized group health plan through employer" ? I believe this depends on whether I was eligible to join her plan. I'm not sure if that's the case, since I was already on Medicare; perhaps this is a question for her employee health insurance provider..
P.S. I understand that I could take all these expenses on Schedule A (if the standard deduction were not now so high), and that if I qualify for SEHID, the deduction cannot exceed my net self-employment income (minus some things such as the deduction for 1/2 the self-employment tax).