Nov
07
Anesthesia Billing and Collections: Raising Medicare Eligibility Age
Author : Doc Clemens
Kaiser Says Raising Medicare's Eligibility Age Will Only Shift Costs
According to an analysis conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation, increasing the Medicare eligibility age will save money for the federal government but only by shifting costs to other payers. The study found that some costs would shift to employers because they would have to continue to cover many of those who continued to work. Some costs would shift to 65- and 66-year-olds, if they are no longer working, as they would have to pay for their own insurance. States may have to pay more, as well. Lower income individuals could end up on Medicaid, rather than Medicare, and add to state budget costs. According to the Kaiser analysis, moving 65- and 66-year-olds out of Medicare would actually raise costs for the health system as a whole.