To: President Donald Trump, The United States House of Representatives, and The United States Senate
Don't Raise Medicare Eligibility Age
Please reject any increase in Medicare eligibility age. It would impose severe hardship on seniors, while having little effect on federal spending and increasing total health care costs.
Why is this important?
Increasing Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67 would cause severe hardship for millions of seniors, who would be forced to deplete their savings or delay health care and suffer permanent damage to their health. This would be a terrible and inhumane price to pay for a barely noticeable decrease in the federal budget deficit. Moreover, individuals and businesses would find their health care costs increasing by more than the government spending would decrease, so any savings would be illusory. Not only would people age 65-66 have to pay for their health insurance, but everyone's premiums would increase as those older, less healthy people were added to the private insurance pool. At the same time, Medicare would lose its youngest and healthiest beneficiaries, so its cost per beneficiary would also increase. In summary, the society would gain absolutely nothing in return for the heavy burden imposed on people age 65-66.