At WaPo’s Wonkblog, Sarah Kliff notes that the relatively paltry $5.7 billion first-year savings to the federal government that an increase in Medicare’s retirement age from 65 to 67 would generate will be more than offset by increased costs to the people immediately affected, plus employers, other Medicare beneficiaries, and the states. In fact, in no small part because Medicare is more efficient than private insurance, the new costs ($11.5 billon in FY 2014) would almost double the savings to Medicare.
Other Medicare beneficiaries would face higher premiums because the 65-67 year-old cohort is relatively healthy, and its elimination from the Medicare pool would boost costs. And the whole scheme only works at all, ironically, thanks to Obamacare, which will offer subsidize insurance (either through employers–whose own costs would be affected–or the new health exchanges).
What a deal, eh?
