The proposal to allow people under 65 to buy into Medicare is raising concerns among doctors, hospitals and insurers. The idea was the result of the recent meeting between 10 moderate and liberal Democrats intent on relieving some of the public option controversy before presenting the bill to the Senate for a final vote.
Although the details of the package are still being nailed down, the proposal aims to allow people as young as 55 access to Medicare. According to Julie Appleby and Mary Agnes Carey of Kaiser Health News, there are currently around 4 million people aged 55 to 64 who are uninsured and have difficulty finding and affording health insurance. The proposal attempts to address the concerns of that population.
Opponents of the new addition to the bill say that Medicare doesn't pay enough as is and that adding more people to the already overwhelmed system will just give doctors and hospitals more leverage to raise the bill for private insurers and employers.
Kaiser Health News noted the concerns of insurers as well. Robert Zirkelbach, insurance industry spokesperson, responded to the package saying, "This would add millions of new people to a program everyone agrees is going broke."
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