Medicare Opt Out Program: Fill & Download for Free

It is already happening. For example, the Amish pay no Social Security and no Medicare taxes, nor do they use those services.The problem, though, is that these programs are a lot closer to insolvency than they were in Ron Paul’s time. If people could opt out, all the younger workers would rationally do so, and the whole system would immediately blow up. It is really a Ponzi scheme, and new, gullible, people are required to keep it working.Of course, these programs are going to face a reckoning whether we allow people to opt out or not. With a broken system, nothing is really feasible.

It would be a mistake to assume all conservatives are in favor of Social Security and/or Medicare.When you take a look at the details, Social Security is a disaster for the American citizens that rely on it the most. You surrender 15% of your income for your entire working career, and if you live into your 80’s, you get barely a 2% return. Indeed, if you’re black or a member of some other group with a lower life expectancy, odds are quite good that you’ll never get back what you paid into the system.If the average American were free to opt out and invest his own money in average-returning financial products over the same period of time, he would be able to collect nearly five times as much at retirement. And when he passes away, at least he has a considerable nestegg to pass down to his heirs, helping ensure the prosperity of future generations.Instead, we get government bureaucrats substituting their judgment for ours, and using the gullible taxpayer to fund whatever ponzi scheme government wants to set up next. If the people were better able to grasp the financial details of programs like Social Security, they’d be chasing down our leaders with pitchforks.

.No, David, you cannot. That FICA tax (Federal Insurance Contribution Act) you see on your pay check is the money which pays Social Security and Medicare benefits. If you and I were allowed to opt out, the system would crash.There are very limited exceptions:Civilian federal government employees hired before 1984. They pay the 1.45% tax for Medicare but not the 6.2% tax for Social Security.25% of state and local government employees with a pension plan. There are also other limited exceptions that apply for, say, some on-campus college student employment.And see cartoon below for one important exception.It’s important to understand that theMedicare tax is, in effect, an enforced health insurance premium. Younger, healthier workers pay into the system so that the older, less healthy ones can have their health care covered.Social Security is essentially an enforced savings plan. It makes Americans save for that time when they no longer work.As a nation, we are poor savers on “our own.” In recent years, the personal saving rate in the United States has fallen sharply. Since mid-2000 it has been about 1%. By contrast, the personal saving rates average 13% in Japan, 12% in Germany, 15% in France and 7% for both Canada and the United Kingdom.Savings is a deeply complex issue. What is not complex is the answer to your question: no, you cannot opt out of paying the FICA tax.P.S. Paul Mulwitz refers to an exception “for government workers who have a much more generous program.” He’s right for workers hired before 1984.. That generous program was the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) Virtually all CSRS workers have retired.I was hired in 1990. My pension comes from the Federal Employees Retirement System. Alas, FERS is but a pale shadow of those fat CSRS pensions.Cartoon: As I said, very limited exceptions…