General Discussion

I don't plan on taking them earlier.

I retired 3 months before my spouse turned 70, so we had income to cover expenses while I was working - and no real reason to start drawing hers earlier. Once I retired, I started receiving a defined benefit plan (roughly 67% of my final average salary). We also each had about $30,000 in annuities that we could draw down in the period between retirement and when I turn 70 - so we spread the withdrawals from those two accounts over the period between my retirement and when I turn 70. And we're both pretty frugal. So money flow isn't an issue - and my parents are still alive at 93, so it is likely that I will live long enough to make waiting for maximum benefit a better option.

Since it is Congress that has to change Medicare, I'm relatively comfortable that it is not going to significantly change. And since I'm 18 months from turning 70, I'm pretty confident that any changes will roll in so that I won't be impacted. (Normally when Congress makes big changes they are rolled in over time so that the impact doesn't hit people who don't have time to plan for it - like when they rolled in the change to normal retirement age.)