Panawanna

Moderator comment dated 2 May 2017: This topic was created out of another topic in a different forum because it essentially splintered off into a new topic. (Not complaining, as this happens from time to time.) Here is a link to the spawning topic:

Going back to the U.S. for Medicare is brought up several times.  We are getting ready to move to Panama and I am just at the point of signing up for Medicare.  My question to this forum is... do I sign up for Both Part A and B?  Or just Part A?  (Which I believe will be at no cost to me).  What is the  value of paying for Medicare (any parts) if living out of the U.S. as it provides no coverage? Catastrophic coverage seems the way to go for us, but I need more data to determine what to do about Medicare.  Thanks.

Ugh.  And things stateside just keep getting more interesting..and by that, I mean just plain uglier!   Our plan is to access our money via a Fidelity ATM card as needed and not 'transfer' funds in large chunks.  I wonder if that would be subject to a fee. Currently,  Fidelity refunds any fees from foreign ATMs when obtaining cash, which is why we opened that account.