PNHP

Hospital Association and others support raising Medicare age to 67

Medicare eligibility age should go up, hospitals say

By Susan Jaffe
Politico, September 8, 2011

The American Hospital Association has a strategy for heading off any more Medicare payment cuts: Tell Congress to get the money from Medicare beneficiaries instead.

The association is urging its nearly 5,000 members to lobby Congress to raise the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67, in addition to other money-saving alternatives.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0911/63020.html

And…

The health industry case for raising Medicare’s eligibility age

By Sarah Kliff
The Washington Post, September 14, 2011

The Health Leadership Council, a consortium of 47 health industry leaders including Aetna, Pfizer and the Cleveland Clinic, will vote Wednesday on whether to endorse raising Medicare’s eligibility age. It’s “very likely” that the group will throw its weight behind the proposal, says HLC vice president Michael Freeman.

States, employers and seniors would all suffer if the Medicare eligibility rules were changed. It would shift about $11.4 billion in new costs to those parties while saving the federal government only $5.7 billion, according to the Center on Budget Priorities and Policy.

“This policy does nothing to control costs,” Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, wrote in a memo obtained by the New York Times. “It simply shifts substantial costs from Medicare to other parts of government and to private and public employers.”

The Budget and Policy center estimates that if the Medicare eligibility age were raised, seniors under age 67 would have to spend $3.7 billion more in out-of-pocket cost. For many in the political system, that’s enough to reject the idea out of hand. But for some in the health-care system, that’s a profit waiting to be made.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/the-health-industry-case-for-raising-medicares-eligibility-age/2011/09/14/gIQAJJ8sRK_blog.html

Comment: 

By Don McCanne, MD

Most of us who believe that the health care system should be designed to serve patients are enraged by America’s health industry leaders who believe that the system should be designed to serve the industry. Yet who has red carpet access to Congress and President Obama? Aren’t we going to do anything about that?

Hospital Association and others support raising Medicare age to 67

Medicare eligibility age should go up, hospitals say

By Susan Jaffe
Politico, September 8, 2011

The American Hospital Association has a strategy for heading off any more Medicare payment cuts: Tell Congress to get the money from Medicare beneficiaries instead.

The association is urging its nearly 5,000 members to lobby Congress to raise the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67, in addition to other money-saving alternatives.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0911/63020.html

And…

The health industry case for raising Medicare’s eligibility age

By Sarah Kliff
The Washington Post, September 14, 2011

The Health Leadership Council, a consortium of 47 health industry leaders including Aetna, Pfizer and the Cleveland Clinic, will vote Wednesday on whether to endorse raising Medicare’s eligibility age. It’s “very likely” that the group will throw its weight behind the proposal, says HLC vice president Michael Freeman.

States, employers and seniors would all suffer if the Medicare eligibility rules were changed. It would shift about $11.4 billion in new costs to those parties while saving the federal government only $5.7 billion, according to the Center on Budget Priorities and Policy.

“This policy does nothing to control costs,” Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, wrote in a memo obtained by the New York Times. “It simply shifts substantial costs from Medicare to other parts of government and to private and public employers.”

The Budget and Policy center estimates that if the Medicare eligibility age were raised, seniors under age 67 would have to spend $3.7 billion more in out-of-pocket cost. For many in the political system, that’s enough to reject the idea out of hand. But for some in the health-care system, that’s a profit waiting to be made.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/the-health-industry-case-for-raising-medicares-eligibility-age/2011/09/14/gIQAJJ8sRK_blog.html

Most of us who believe that the health care system should be designed to serve patients are enraged by America’s health industry leaders who believe that the system should be designed to serve the industry. Yet who has red carpet access to Congress and President Obama? Aren’t we going to do anything about that?