Lowering the age of Medicare eligibility to 60: effects on coverage and spending
- Collection:
- Health Policy and Services Research
- Series Title(s):
- Urban Institute research report
- Author(s):
- Holahan, John, author Buettgens, Matthew, author Green, Andrew, (Of Urban Institute), author Simpson, Michael, (Of Urban Institute), author Banthin, Jessica, author
- Contributor(s):
- Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, issuing body. Urban Institute, issuing body.
- Publication:
- Washington, DC : Urban Institute, June 2022
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- Dual MEDICAID MEDICARE Eligibility Eligibility Determination -- economics Health Equity -- economics Health Policy Medicare -- legislation & jurisprudence Middle Aged Social Mobility United States
- Genre(s):
- Technical Report
- Abstract:
- This report examines the cost and coverage effects of lowering the age of Medicare eligibility from 65 to 60. We find that doing so would lead to improvements in health insurance coverage, though coverage gains would differ by enrollees’ income and current coverage. However, these improvements would come with a fairly large increase in federal spending and some increase in overall spending for health care services. If the Medicare eligibility age were lowered to 60, adults ages 60 to 64 currently enrolled in employer-sponsored insurance could choose to drop their current coverage and enroll in Medicare Parts A, B, and D (as explained below, we are not able to model Part C), or they could keep their current coverage and would be additionally enrolled in Medicare Part A as secondary insurance. We estimate that of the 12.0 million people ages 60 to 64 enrolled in employer-sponsored insurance in the baseline for 2023—which assumes the Marketplace subsidies available under the American Rescue Plan Act have been extended and made permanent—9.2 million, or 77 percent, would keep their current coverage with the added benefit of Medicare Part A (figure ES.1). The remaining 2.8 million, or 23 percent, would drop their employer-sponsored coverage, with most switching to comprehensive Medicare. Under this policy, adults ages 60 to 64 would lose eligibility for Marketplace premium tax credits (PTCs) when they become eligible for Medicare. Of the 2.8 million people in this age group who have nongroup coverage in the baseline, the 2.4 million who currently get PTCs or are in Basic Health Program plans would lose their current coverage.1 Nearly all of them would enroll in comprehensive Medicare instead. Marketplace PTCs are more generous than Medicare at lower incomes, however, so many of these adults would have to pay more for coverage, and a few would become uninsured. (Throughout this report, “uninsured” includes both people with no health insurance coverage and people with less than comprehensive coverage, including Medicare Part A only and noncompliant nongroup plans). Among nongroup enrollees not getting PTCs, some would switch to Medicare, while about 415,000 would remain enrolled in nongroup coverage, and almost all of the latter group would also be enrolled in Medicare Part A.
- Copyright:
- Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further use of the material is subject to CC BY-NC-DC license. (More information)
- Extent:
- 1 online resource (1 PDF file (viii, 27 pages))
- Illustrations:
- Illustrations
- NLM Unique ID:
- 9918486687106676 (See catalog record)
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918486687106676