Your Social Security follows you. Your Medicare does not.
One of these two travels almost anywhere. The other stops at the border. People plan around the first and forget the second, then find out the expensive way.
Retire abroad and your Social Security keeps arriving. The SSA pays US citizens in almost every country on earth. It can go to a foreign bank or stay in a US account. Your address changes and the money still lands.
Medicare works nothing like that. It covers you inside the United States. Cross a border and it stops.
That split is the whole story. Everything below is detail.
Where the checks cannot go
The list of blocked countries is short. The SSA cannot send payments to Cuba or North Korea. Payments to Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are restricted. Moldova and Ukraine carry restrictions for some beneficiaries.
Everywhere else, you get paid. Thailand, Mexico, Portugal, the Philippines, Panama. None of them are a problem.
What Medicare does when you leave
Part A and Part B pay almost nothing outside the United States. Go to a hospital in Chiang Mai or Lisbon and Medicare is not paying that bill. A few narrow exceptions exist. Some Medigap policies cover emergency care abroad, and Part B can cover necessary medical care on a cruise ship in limited circumstances.
Do not build a retirement on the exceptions. Build it on the rule.
| Living abroad | Social Security | Medicare |
|---|---|---|
| Most countries | Paid | No coverage |
| Cuba, North Korea | Blocked | No coverage |
| Several former Soviet states | Restricted | No coverage |
| Visiting the US | Paid | Covered |
The Part B decision
Here is where people lose money. You are abroad, Medicare covers nothing where you live, and the Part B premium leaves your account every month. Dropping it looks obvious.
Then you move back, or you get sick and want US care. Re-enrolling carries a late enrollment penalty. It is calculated per twelve-month period you could have held Part B and did not, and it stays on your premium for as long as you have Part B. Not one year. For good.
Keeping it is insurance against coming home. Dropping it is a bet you never will. Run the arithmetic on both before you cancel anything, and check the current rules at medicare.gov rather than trusting a forum post.
What this means in practice
- Your income travels. Plan on it.
- Your health coverage does not. You need local cover, an international policy, or both.
- The country you pick has little bearing on whether you get paid. It decides everything about your healthcare.
- Part B is a decision with a permanent price tag attached. Treat it like one.
We publish CMS quality data on every certified US nursing home for the other side of that question.
Sources
- USAGov, Social Security benefits outside the US
- Medicare.gov, travel outside the US
- Medicare coverage outside the United States, fact sheet
Rules change. Check the current position with the SSA and Medicare before acting. Nothing here is legal, tax or medical advice.