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What Raising the Medicare Eligibility Age Means for Older Adults and People With Disabilities
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This fact sheet explains what raising the Medicare eligibility age would mean for older adults, people with disabilities, workers, employers, and the health care system.
Medicare is a nearly universal program for people 65 and over, guaranteeing health care for older adults who have paid into the system during their working lives. This ensures that older adults do not have to continue to rely on employer health insurance and can retire at 65 without risking coverage loss. Some policymakers want to delay access to Medicare by raising the eligibility age from 65 to 67 or even 70. This would disproportionately harm people who can least afford it, including people who work in physically demanding jobs and older adults of color.
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Any changes to the Medicare program must aim for healthier people, better care, and smarter spending—not paying more for less. As policymakers debate the future of health care, we will provide our insights here.
Thinking ahead to Medicare's future, it’s important to modernize benefits and pursue changes that improve how people with Medicare navigate their coverage on a daily basis. Here are our evolving 30 policy goals for Medicare’s future.
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