At OurFuture.org, RJ Eskow
counts the ways in which raising the Medicare age would be the "worst Presidential 'bargain'" since 1854. He comes up with eight of them in explaining why this should not be part of any "Grand Bargain." Remember, the president
offered up a hike in the Medicare age in his failed negotiations with Speaker John Boehner.
1. It would save money at the Federal level -- but it would cost more everywhere else.
A Kaiser Foundation study concluded that "raising Medicare’s eligibility to 67 in 2014 would generate an estimated $5.7 billion in net savings to the federal government, but also result in an estimated net increase of $3.7 billion in out-of-pocket costs for 65- and 66-year-olds, and $4.5 billion in employer retiree health-care costs."[...]
2. It's brutal on seniors. In fact, it's like a 20% cut in Social Security benefits.
The Kaiser Foundation says that "Among the estimated 5 million affected 65- and 66-year-olds, about two in three would pay an average of $2,200 more for their health care in 2014 than they would have paid if covered under Medicare." [...]
3. It would lead to benefit cuts and create more job discrimination against older workers.
The Kaiser study cites the problems that employee retirement health benefits are having with costs. As a result, these programs are being slashed already and this change would make the situation much worse. It would also increase costs on health plans for active workers, which would lead to even more benefit cuts for working Americans.[...]
4. Its impact is made even worse by the President's demand that a "health excise tax" on higher-cost plans be included in last year's health bill.
[...] Raising the retirement age would make this tax even costlier, multiplying the unfairness of the original health excise tax.
5. The number of uninsured Americans will go up.
This change undercuts one of the stated goals of last year's health bill: reducing the number of uninsured Americans. Private health insurers are allowed to charge much higher premiums to older Americans, but the tax penalty for going without insurance is the same.[...]
6. Health system costs will increase, too.
We already pay far more than any other industrialized nation for health care. Why? Because too much of our health system is run by private insurers who take a profit for themselves and have no real incentive to control costs or improve quality.[...]
7. It doesn't address the real cost problem—chronic health conditions.
[...] Five health conditions account for a great deal of this cost: heart problems, diabetes, cancer, mental disorders, and pulmonary conditions. The best way for Medicare to reduce these costs is by identifying these conditions as quickly as possible and managing them aggressively.
Raising the retirement age will make it more difficult to do that,, not less. Even worse, it's another example of our leaders shifting cost onto financially-strapped private citizens rather than addressing the real problem.
8. It's a step in the wrong direction.
We should be expanding Medicare, not downsizing it. Last year the Senate gave some consideration to making Medicare available to anyone over the age of 55, which is an excellent idea. This bill moves us in the other direction, placing the higher-cost needs of 66 and 67-year-old Americans in the hands of underskilled and overly profit-driven private insurers.
There are eight good reasons for this to be idea to be taken off the table. The only reason for it to be included, aside from the slim to nonexistent chance that Republicans will counter the offer of it with something meaningful, is that it would mean the federal government could say it was saving a teeny, tiny bit of money, as long as it ignored all the other costs.