- In a shift left, Joe Biden has unveiled a proposal to make people eligible for Medicare when they turn 60.
- Biden has mainly advocated in favor of expanding Obamacare by providing people with higher subsidies and giving people the option to enroll in a government plan.
- The idea doesn't go as far as the "Medicare for all" plan from Bernie Sanders, which would enroll everyone in the US into a government plan.
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Former Vice President Joe Biden unveiled a proposal Thursday to let people enroll in Medicare starting at age 60.
The move marks a shift left for the presumptive Democratic nominee, whose healthcare plan has focused on building on Obamacare and giving all adults the option to buy into a new government plan that would be similar to Medicare.
Biden released his idea just a day after his "Medicare for All" rival Bernie Sanders suspended his campaign. Sanders wanted to mostly outlaw private health insurance in favor of enrolling everyone living in the US into a single government plan that would offer more benefits than Medicare does currently.
The battle over how far to extend the government's role in paying for healthcare became one of the leading feuds in the Democratic primary, and "Medicare for all" gained the support of former presidential hopefuls Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Elizabeth Warren, and Kirsten Gillibrand.
Biden said in a post on Medium that he was calling for lowering the age that people can sign up for Medicare as a direct response to the coronavirus pandemic. Expanding eligibility, he said, would "help people find more secure footing in the long term once we have emerged from this crisis."
"It reflects the reality that, even after the current crisis ends, older Americans are likely to find it difficult to secure jobs," Biden said in his announcement.
The highest proportion of people who are uninsured in the US are between the ages of 19 and 34, but older Americans who don't qualify for Medicare yet have had the hardest time finding affordable health insurance because they can be charged three times more than younger beneficiaries. At the same time, the inclusion of older beneficiaries in the markets also make costs rise for younger beneficiaries, who tend to have fewer healthcare needs.
Biden provided few specifics Thursday other than to say he was directing his team to develop a plan to lower the age of Medicare eligibility. Currently, people are allowed to enroll in the program once they turn 65. Some people with severe health needs, including people on dialysis or people with Lou Gehrig's disease, can also qualify.
The latest idea adds to Biden's former proposal, which he frequently billed as a "build on" Obamacare, formally known as the Affordable Care Act. As he fought for his party's nomination, he frequently accused Democratic rivals of wanting to "get rid of Obamacare" by pushing "Medicare for all."
The government plan he pushed for instead, often called a "public option" would be available to people as an alternative to private health insurance, rather than having the government become the sole payer for healthcare services.
Biden's plan would let people stay on private insurance they get through work if they choose, or be on Obamacare or the public option.
The portion that would pay for people to enroll in Medicare at age 60 would be financed out of general government revenues rather than the Medicare Trust Fund. That specification is presumably to address criticisms about Medicare's solvency. According to the Social Security and Medicare Trustees report, the part of Medicare that pays for inpatient hospital and hospice care will run out of full funding in 2026. Unless Congress fixes the financing, the program would pay a diminishing amount of reimbursement for medical costs.