Medicare, the U.S. health care insurance that provides benefits to seniors over 65, and to certain individuals who qualify for the program at an earlier age, has been on the cross hairs of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), who have been questioning whether it is time to phase in and raise the eligibility age to 67. With millions of baby boomers retiring and enrolling into Medicare program, and the recent Medicare spending explosion, is threatening the stability of the U.S. economy. Projection of Medicare spending in the coming decades is expected to continue to exceed domestic per capita growth. Further adding to the growth is increase of life expectancy, translating to; the cost of Medicare has increased along with the life span of the people covered since the program began in 1965. Currently, there is a two prong camps for and against rising the eligibility age of Medicare. One side says that raising the age would save around 3 million a year or about $19 billion, between 2016 and 2023. This would reduce our current deficit to about 1% (our current deficit is $680 billion). Others argue that it is not fair for people to wait two extra years to qualify for Medicare. And that increasing the age would shift the cost to those ages 65 to 66. Seniors would incur an increased out-of-pocket expense of $3.7 billion, and employers tab would increase to 4.5 billion and states would face increased Medicare cost, estimates the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Posted on: Fri, 22 Nov 2013 20:43:04 +0000
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