Report Calls for Raising Medicare Eligibility Age

An internal government report recommends raising the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67. Such a move would affect about 76 million people in an effort to save billions of dollars for the system, which is now headed for bankruptcy.

The report acknowledges that such action, certain to face opposition from senior citizen groups, would force some people to delay their retirement so they can keep their employers’ health insurance.

It also admits that some people who retire early would be left without health insurance and as a result would delay going to the doctor until they are really sick.

The rising eligibility age would be phased in over 25 years.

“Gradually changing the Medicare entitlement age to 67 would save . . . three-quarters of a trillion dollars over a 30-year period beginning in the year 2003,” said the draft report by the inspector general’s office of the Department of Health and Human Services.

The report said the change is needed because of the large federal deficit and “the projected insolvency of the Medicare trust fund.” Revising the entitlement age would require congressional action.

The inspector general’s office recommended raising the Medicare eligibility age at the same pace as the rise in the Social Security full retirement age scheduled to take effect in 10 years.

The reason is simple: Medicare is going broke. The system providing health care coverage to approximately 35 million people over age 65 is projected to become insolvent sometime around the year 2002, caught in the squeeze of an aging population and runaway increases in the cost of medical care.

Social Security’s rescue package includes raising the full retirement age from 65. Starting in the year 2003, the age for retirement with full benefits will be 65 years and two months. By the year 2027, when people born in 1960 will be retiring, the age will be 67.