Democrats’ Push to Lower Medicare Age Raises Hopes, Concerns

Bloomberg | By Tony Pugh | April 28, 2021 5:32AM ET

Congressional Democrats appear to have found common ground in a proposal that has animated both their progressive and moderate factions: lowering the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 60—or even lower.
 
Supporters want to help fund the benefits expansion with $456 billion that Medicare could save over 10 years through President Joe Biden’s plan to let the program negotiate its own drug prices.
 
After the massive loss of jobs and employer-based health coverage due to Covid-19, Democrats say public support for their plan is strong. A recent Gallup poll found roughly 46 million Americans couldn’t pay for quality health care if they needed it. And even before the pandemic struck, 77% of Americans, including 69% of Republicans, favored letting adults ages 50 to 64 buy into the Medicare program, according to a January 2019 poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
 
Getting their policy goals accomplished, however, will still prove to be a heavy political lift.
Congressional Republicans have railed against expanding federal health-care programs and have shown no signs of budging. The powerful pharmaceutical lobby opposes Medicare negotiating its own drug prices. And “simply lowering Medicare’s eligibility age does not solve the core problem of affordability and would put at risk the existing coverage so many Americans rely upon,” David Allen, a spokesman for America’s Health Insurance Plans, said in a statement.