Supposedly proposals have been floated by the president to raise the Medicare age to 67. This is in line with the Social Security retirement age of 67 for people born after 1960.
The premise is that shifting expenses for individuals 65 to 67 years of age from Medicare to private insurers will save taxpayers a lot of money without hurting access to coverage because, since these people will theoretically be employed to age 67, they will receive affordable private insurance through an employer or the insurance exchanges, as mandated by the Affordable Care Act.
As Joan McCarter rightly highlights in her excellent diary, this would "[shift]costs to individuals, employers, and states. These increased costs would be twice as large as the net federal savings."
Who believes employers and insurers will eagerly absorb these higher costs? And that states will not raise taxes or fees to cover their increased expense for having to extend Medicaid to be the sole payer for anyone 65 to 67 years old who meets the legal definition of poor (which, by the way, excludes a lot of poor people)? Ultimately, the cost of this care will land on the back of the healthcare consumer, through increased premiums, higher coinsurance/copayments, reduced wages, and more taxes.
Even outside of a recession and despite anti-discrimination laws, it is challenging for older adults--even those younger than age 65--to find employment; and for older people in labor-intensive positions, early retirement may not be optional. We will have to confront the consequences of extending retirement past 65 years of age in the years to come, which was likely the point when politicians decided to "save money" (on paper) by raising the Social Security eligibility age. After all, the real-world consequences of that decision would burden another president and another Congress down the road, while scoring political brownie points for the current officeholders.
Of course, somewhere in the decisionmaking process, someone neglected to explain to Congress that guys like Diabetes, Heart Disease, Cancer, and Stroke do not concern themselves with laws and do not wait for people to reach the legal age of retirement before making their often career-ending introduction.
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