Analysts at the Urban Institute have come out with a new paper that could fill retirement advisors and their clients with a gnawing sense of dread.
The analysts have come out with a paper about the possibility that Congress could, possibly, increase the normal eligibility age for Medicare to age 67, from age 65 today.
Michael Simpson, Bowen Garrett and John Holahan note in the paper that the proposal is not simply the stuff of abstract nightmares.
The Congressional Budget Office published an analysis of the idea in 2018.
The Washington Post ran an opinion article about the idea of increasing the Medicare eligibility age in July, and former U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan talked about the idea at an event in October.
For a look at five things Simpson and colleagues found when they used government data and Urban Institute economic forecasting systems to analyze the idea of increasing the eligibility age by two years, see the gallery accompanying this article.
The backdrop: Medicare now provides health coverage for 69 million people who are 65 or older, who are disabled or who have kidney disease so severe that they need either dialysis or a kidney transplant.
Most enrollees have funded basic Medicare Part A hospitalization coverage through contributions of payroll taxes paid by themselves or others, and they usually pay for Medicare Part B physician and outpatient services coverage by paying monthly premiums.
Congress has already increased the eligibility age for ordinary benefits for another big U.S. retirement benefits program: Social Security.
The United States phased in an increase in the normal Social Security age to 67, from 65, from 1983 through 2023.
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