Raising Medicare Age Off Obama’s List; ELA Poll Results Suggest That’s a Smart Political Move

Excerpt from Elder Law Answers Blog: (click for entire article)

President Obama did not propose raising the Medicare eligibility age as part of the administration’s deficit reduction plan released yesterday. As we reported in a news article last week, the hospital industry has mounted a lobbying campaign to raise the eligibility age from 65 to 67 by 2014 as a way to prevent cuts to their future Medicare payments, which is what will happen if the congressional “super committee” charged with shaving at least $1.2 trillion from the deficit fails to find savings elsewhere.

Obama’s refusal to cave into conservative “entitlement hawks” is good news for older workers and the unemployed, who now know that at least the Democrats are united on this issue. Judging by the results of ElderLawAnswers’ recent poll, supporting raising Medicare’s eligibility age would be political suicide.