Medicare at 50 Act reintroduced

[Ombligo]

A group of Democratic senators re-introduced legislation, dubbed the "Medicare at 50 Act," that would expand Medicare access to Americans who are between 50 and 64 years old. There is bipartisan support for expanding Medicare eligibility among Americans: A January 2019 poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 77% of the 1,190 respondents — including 69% of Republican respondents — favored a Medicare buy-in plan for people as young as the age of 50.

The legislation also goes a step further than President Biden’s Medicare plan, which proposed lowering the Medicare eligibility age to 60 years old.

https://www.yahoo.com/money/new-bill-wou...15933.html

[C(-)ris]

Not sure why we would need to extended it beyond retirement age. You should be working till you are 65 unless you have a disability or other qualifying event in which case you would be eligible for that reason.

We don't need to give people who decide they want to retire early Medicare. They made the choice and funding their own healthcare should have been part of their calculations to decide if they could retire early.

[Ca Bob]

C(-)ris wrote:
Not sure why we would need to extended it beyond retirement age. You should be working till you are 65 unless you have a disability or other qualifying event in which case you would be eligible for that reason.

We don't need to give people who decide they want to retire early Medicare. They made the choice and funding their own healthcare should have been part of their calculations to decide if they could retire early.

I presume the idea is to allow people under the age of 65 to buy in to Medicare at some price point. In other words, a "public option" for anybody who manages to make it to 50, and which would roll over into regular Medicare at age 65. I see this as a way to create some real competition in the world of providing care and pharmaceuticals.

And it ought to be obvious that the long range goal would be to extend the public/Medicare option to lower ages over the years or decades, as the idea that there is a general right to buy health insurance becomes more universal.

One study of hospital bills suggested that American hospitals bill much higher than in other places simply because they can. This would be the next step towards doing something about that. There is so much that needs to be done to our non-system. If we can't do it in one magical swoop of the wand, then we should at least make incremental changes as they become possible.

[Speedy]

Reading the topic subject and not doing the math, I thought maybe the Democrats were simply going to see if the Medicare bill as originally worded would pass with any Republican support.

[vision63]

Speedy wrote:
Reading the topic subject and not doing the math, I thought maybe the Democrats were simply going to see if the Medicare bill as originally worded would pass with any Republican support.

It wouldn't have full Democratic support by a decent measure, much less Republican anything.

[bfd]

Medicare is no free lunch…

[Sarcany]

C(-)ris wrote:
Not sure why we would need to extended it beyond retirement age. You should be working till you are 65 unless you have a disability or other qualifying event in which case you would be eligible for that reason.

Minimum-wage workers and contractors who have to buy in to nearly-useless just-for-show high-deductible plans (if they have any opportunity at all for healthcare from their employers) would probably disagree.

[vision63]

Sarcany wrote:
[quote=C(-)ris]
Not sure why we would need to extended it beyond retirement age. You should be working till you are 65 unless you have a disability or other qualifying event in which case you would be eligible for that reason.

Minimum-wage workers and contractors who have to buy in to nearly-useless just-for-show high-deductible plans (if they have any opportunity at all for healthcare from their employers) would probably disagree.
That's a fact. You can take away minimum-wage workers and just say most workers.

[Lizabeth]

I can see the flexibility of having health insurance that's separate from the job, especially if you are working a not so great job (mentally or $$) just because of needing the health insurance for yourself or your family (pre-existing conditions of a serious nature, anyone?)

Having accessible health insurance options before I qualify for Medicare (yes that I pay for and have a budget for) has changed the way I'm approaching retirement. Thankfully the cantaloupe MMC couldn't get rid of that option before his a** was booted out.

[sekker]

Seems like a great way to put a public option on the table.