Medicare on an Ex-Spouse’s Record

Updated August 4, 2026. Quick answer: if you are 65 and eligible for a benefit on a former spouse’s record, you do not have to wait for your ex to claim before you can get Medicare Part A on that record. SSA’s own instruction says an aged spouse may file for hospital insurance only, whether or not the worker has filed for retirement benefits.

The rule, in SSA’s own instruction

An aged spouse (or other aged auxiliary) may file for HI only whether or not the NH has filed for RIB.

— POMS HI 00801.022, section C.1

In plain terms: HI is hospital insurance, Medicare Part A. The NH is the number holder — the worker whose record the benefit sits on. RIB is retirement insurance benefits. So an aged auxiliary — which includes a divorced spouse who qualifies on that record — can file for Part A on its own, without the worker having claimed anything.

Beginning 1/1/81, an individual age 65 or over who is eligible for the following monthly benefits may file an application for HI only: Retirement benefits; Spouse’s benefits; Childhood Disability Benefits; deceased spouses benefits; Parent’s Benefits.

— POMS HI 00801.022, section C.1

Note what is on that list: spouse’s benefits and deceased spouse’s benefits. Both routes reach a former spouse who meets the conditions on that record.

If you are already claiming, you have probably already applied

Applications for retirement age monthly benefits are also applications for HI. Thus, a separate HI application is not required

— POMS HI 00801.022, section A

So the people who need to act on this page are specifically those who are not drawing a monthly benefit — because they are waiting to claim, or because they were told there was nothing there for them. If a monthly benefit is already being paid, the Medicare side was handled by that application.

This is the Medicare half of a rule you may already know

The cash-benefit version of “your ex does not have to file” is a separate rule with its own conditions, and it has its own page: your ex does not have to file for you to claim. Whether you qualify on that record at all runs through the marriage-duration test: the divorced-spouse ten-year rule. And if you have remarried, two rules point in opposite directions — that is worth reading before you file.

What we are deliberately not telling you

We are not publishing the eligibility conditions for premium-free Part A on a former spouse’s record. The marriage-duration, currently-unmarried and age tests as they apply to Medicare specifically sit in POMS sections we could not reach — www.ssa.gov returns an error to us and we re-tested it today, and the relevant HI sections did not resolve at the route that does work. This is a page where a wrong condition sends someone away believing they have no coverage, so we would rather send you to ask than guess. Ask SSA directly whether you qualify on that record, and ask in writing. What we can tell you with confidence is the part above: you do not have to wait for your ex to file first.

Related

Turning 65 generally: the first Medicare choices at 65. If you are still working or covered elsewhere, the enrolment timing changes; if you are dividing a pension in the same divorce, the two ways a QDRO can divide it decides whether your share outlives your ex.

Honest gaps

Beyond the eligibility conditions above: we have not covered Part B enrolment timing on a former spouse’s record, the Special Enrolment Period rules where you had coverage through the marriage, or what happens if the ex-spouse is deceased rather than living — those run on the deceased-spouse route named in the quoted list and have their own conditions. Nothing here is a determination of your entitlement; only SSA makes that.

General information drawn from SSA’s Program Operations Manual System, not legal or benefits advice. Entitlement turns on an earnings record and a marital history this page cannot see. We sell nothing on this page and earn nothing from it.