US Social Security and Medicare when you retire in the Philippines

Yes, US Social Security can be paid to you in the Philippines. The Social Security Administration (SSA) can deposit it straight into a Philippine bank account. Medicare is the problem. It “usually doesn’t cover health care while you’re traveling outside the U.S.”, in Medicare.gov’s words, and living here counts as outside the US. Plan your health cover in the Philippines separately.

This page sets out what the US agencies publish. It is general information. Your own case depends on your record with each agency, so check it with them.

Getting your Social Security paid in the Philippines

US citizens, including Filipino-Americans who took back Philippine citizenship, keep their payments abroad. The SSA’s booklet Your Payments While You Are Outside the United States (April 2026) says: “If you are a United States citizen, you may continue to receive payments while outside the U.S.” It also says you must be eligible and be in a country where the SSA can send payments. The restrictions the booklet names cover Cuba and North Korea (US Treasury sanctions) and seven former Soviet republics. The Philippines is not among them.

Filipino citizens who are not US citizens (for example, green card holders who come home) are covered too, with conditions. The booklet lists the Philippines among the countries whose citizens keep payments based on their own US work record. A spouse or child paid on someone else’s record has extra residency rules to meet. If you are not sure which rule applies to you, the SSA’s Payments Abroad Screening Tool asks a few questions and tells you whether payments continue.

How the money arrives. The Philippines is on the SSA’s list of countries with international direct deposit, so your benefit can go into an account at a Philippine bank. The SSA can also keep paying into a US bank account wherever you live. The SSA pays benefits in US dollars and does not adjust them for exchange rates.

Who to talk to in Manila. Outside the US, the SSA booklet sends people to their Federal Benefits Unit, except in the British Virgin Islands, Canada and Samoa. The FBU at the US Embassy, 1201 Roxas Boulevard, Ermita, Manila, handles Social Security questions for people in the Philippines. Its email address is FBU.Manila@ssa.gov.

What you must report. The booklet lists the changes you must tell the SSA about while you live abroad, such as a change of address, work, marriage or a death. It also sends a questionnaire every year or every two years to check that you are still eligible. If you do not return it, your payments stop.

Medicare: what it pays for here

Medicare.gov says Medicare may pay for hospital, doctor and ambulance services in a foreign country only “in rare cases”. The usual example is an emergency that starts while you are in the US, when a foreign hospital is closer than any US hospital that can treat you. For someone living in Manila, Cebu or Davao, plan as if Medicare will pay nothing. Medicare drug plans don’t cover medicines bought outside the US.

The SSA’s booklet adds that Medicare “generally does not cover health services you get outside the United States”. Part A becomes available to you if you return to the US.

Keep Part B or drop it?

Part B costs a monthly premium. Medicare.gov gives the standard Part B premium as USD 202.90 a month in 2026, and higher for people with higher incomes. If you live in the Philippines, you pay for cover you can mostly use only on trips to the US.

Dropping it has a cost later. If you sign up again after a gap, Medicare.gov says you pay “an extra 10% for each year you could have signed up for Part B, but didn’t”, and for most people that penalty lasts for life. Medicare.gov’s own example: after two full years without Part B, the penalty is 20%, or USD 40.58 a month on top of the 2026 premium.

So the choice turns on whether you expect to go back to the US for treatment:

• If you might return to the US for treatment, keeping Part B avoids a penalty that grows with every year outside it.
• If you are sure you will be treated in the Philippines, the premium buys little here.

The SSA booklet says that if you cancel Part B, the premiums continue for one more month after the month you tell the SSA. Get this decision right before you leave. Ask the FBU in Manila or Medicare about your own dates and any Special Enrollment Period before you cancel anything.

US veterans: VA care in Manila

The VA runs VA Manila health care at 1501 Roxas Boulevard, Pasay City. Outside the US, the VA’s Foreign Medical Program (FMP) may pay for medically necessary care for a VA-rated, service-connected disability, for a condition the VA finds makes that disability worse, or for care during its Veteran Readiness and Employment programme. It does not pay for other conditions. You can use any licensed health care provider in the country, and your FMP benefits letter shows which conditions are covered.

Health cover in the Philippines alongside

Because Medicare does not pay for care here, work out how you will pay for care in the Philippines:

• PhilHealth, the national health insurance, for hospital bills. RA 10645 says “all senior citizens shall be covered by the national health insurance program of PhilHealth”. RA 9994 defines a senior citizen as a resident citizen of the Philippines aged 60 or more. Ask PhilHealth how it classes you when you register.
• Private health cover for seniors for what PhilHealth leaves unpaid. Compare what each plan covers at your age, and its limits, before you rely on it.

See the PhilHealth guide for membership, premiums and benefits.

Read about health cover for seniors in the Philippines.

Taxes in both countries

US tax. The IRS says US citizens and resident aliens are “subject to tax on worldwide income from all sources”, wherever they live. The SSA booklet adds that up to 85% of your Social Security benefit may be taxable, depending on your other income.

Philippine tax. The National Internal Revenue Code (Sec. 23) taxes “a citizen of the Philippines residing therein” on income from inside and outside the Philippines. A non-resident citizen is taxed only on income from Philippine sources, and so is a foreign national. A dual citizen who settles here may therefore be treated as a resident citizen.

How the two systems meet for your income is a question for a tax professional, the IRS and the BIR. This page gives no tax advice.

If you also paid into SSS

Many Filipino-Americans worked in the Philippines before they emigrated, or kept paying SSS from the US. You may be due an SSS pension as well. It needs 120 monthly contributions and age 60 if you have stopped working, or 65 (RA 11199, Sec. 12-B). Check your contribution record before you plan around it.

See the SSS pension guide for how the pension is worked out.

Before you move, read the dual citizenship guide.

See what a month here might cost on the cost of living page.

For the rest of the move, see the coming home guide.