How would lowering the Medicare age save the system money?

[democrattotheend]

9. In theory, I might agree

Although I think it would have to be higher than 5% of annual income. In Germany I believe it's 8%, and I don't know if that includes dependent care.

But for my paper, I am looking specifically at proposals to offer Medicare to people ages 55-64. I want my paper to be a serious proposal and not just a liberal fantasy.

My feeling is that if employers, especially small employers, could offload people ages 55 and up onto Medicare and only provide secondary insurance for them, they would be able to offer full insurance for workers under 55 and supplemental coverage for those over 55 much more cheaply, and would be less inclined to squeeze older workers out of the workforce.

So I think lowering the age to 55 would be good policy, but I have to find a way to make it cost-neutral for Medicare since the program is already facing serious funding shortfalls in the not so distant future.