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Raising the Medicare Eligibility Age Won't Work
Posted at 2:15 p.m. on Nov. 29, 2012
Some lawmakers and pundits have floated the possibility of raising the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67 as a way to reduce spending, but NPR explains why such a move could actually increase the deficit.
“Let’s focus on those 65- and 66-year-olds. In Medicare, they’re currently the youngest and healthiest people. So by delaying their entry into the program…you raise costs for everyone else already there… At the same time, those same 65- and 66-year-olds would be the oldest and, likely, among the sickest people remaining in the insurance pools of the working-age population.”
“To be clear, raising Medicare’s eligibility age would save money for the half-trillion-dollar-a-year Medicare program — and for the federal government as a whole… But overall…the savings to the federal government would be more than offset by additional costs to states, individuals and employers — about $1 billion more in 2014 alone.”
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