America owes a lot to our veterans. Social Security, of course, is available to those who served in the miliary for most of their working career and earned, at least, the minimum 40 credits to be eligible for benefits. And eligibility for Social Security also means automatic eligibility for Medicare at 65 to provide for their healthcare needs. But just like the many others, military veterans are sometimes uncertain about when to apply for their earned Social Security benefits, and veterans are similarly uncertain about how (or if) Medicare interacts with their military healthcare benefits. Those are the questions addressed in this encore edition of an Ask Rusty article published by the AMAC Foundation in March 2024.

In this article, a retired Navy veteran asks Rusty when, considering he is age 64 and still working, would be the best time for him to claim Social Security, and how enrolling Medicare at 65 will affect his military “TriCare” healthcare benefits as a veteran. See Rusty’s written answer at this link, and listen to the audio version of Rusty’s response to this veteran’s questions here.