STS, I am in the middle of the decision making process in regards to joining Medicare. Turn 65 next month so I have theoretically until the end of June to commit. A couple of factors that play in:
1) I am still working (self-employed) and am on my wife's FEHB health insurance BUT she is retired and Medicare no longer considers retiree coverage as acceptable coverage in terms of me delaying joining and I would definitely be charged the 10%/year penalty when I ultimately joined.
2) Because of my income I would not pay the standard Medicare premium but one that is double.
Doing the math, because of having to pay a higher premium and figuring I would still be working another couple of years, I figured that in my case even with the lifetime penalty, it would take me over 20 years of me paying the penalty to even out in premiums with the case where I would join now but pay double for a couple of years.
HOWEVER, I am leaning to joining Medicare because one never knows what the jokers in Washington will pull. Before 2010 or whatever date it was Congressmen were part of the FEHB (just like the insurance I have because of my wife having been a gov't employee) but when they passed the ACA they wanted to show off that they would join the same insurance marketplace as the masses, they removed themselves from the FEHB. Well, one never knows if they may pull something like this for gov't employee retirement benefits (I doubt it but is it worth the risk) and then I would be forced to join Medicare and be thrust into the penalty anyway.
So in a couple of months I will probably sign up for Medicare, both parts A and B, still keep the FEHB (which means I don't have to sign up for Part D), and just go ahead and pay the extra premium. Heck, extra premium because I am earning more and of course when I stop working I can get them to drop the premiums back to the basic amount.
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