How would lowering the Medicare age save the system money?

[Warpy]

12. Easy. You assure solvency by having a full price buy in

It's still going to be considerably cheaper than for profit insurance, which is why they'll all scream bloody murder over it, but they honestly have little enthusiasm for insuring older people with health problems and the din will die fast, just like it did when Medicare first came in.

Medicare for seniors over 65 is subsidized by younger workers paying premiums in but who are ineligible for benefits until they are 65 or become disabled. Removing the subsidy for people 55-65 and allowing them to buy into the plan makes a great deal of sense since the healthy seniors will buy in along with the sick ones. It might be successful enough to offer a sliding scale for poorer seniors.

At least a Medicare buy in will take care of the major medical problems a lot more cheaply than leaving them uninsured will, the hospitals charging the Medicare rate instead of the private pay patient rate.

That still leaves a gap among the underemployed who will have trouble paying for their daily medication. However, lowering the Medicare age by offering a full price buy in does make economic sense.

And nobody called you a Republican. The single minded focus on dollars in a trust fund is a Republican one. They never consider the human cost nor do they consider options beyond full, subsidized coverage. Nor do they ever consider fair pricing of hospital services nor do they ever consider the original purpose of Medicaid, a sliding scale insurance program for the working poor, not just a program of last resort for those made destitute by health care bills.