Quote: The Argument Against Raising Age for Medicare

"According to the best available study, which comes from the Kaiser Family Foundation, 65- and 66-year-olds with incomes of less than 250 percent of the poverty line, or about $30,000 for a couple, would generally end up paying a little less in out-of-pocket medical expenses if the Medicare age went up. That’s because they’d likely end up getting insurance from Medicaid or through one of Obamacare’s insurance exchanges, which, at those low income levels, would offer better financial protection. So far, so good.

"But the financial protection at higher incomes would be worse. Among those paying more would be 65- and 66-year-olds in households making just $45,000 a year for a couple, in today’s dollars—in other words, people who are middle class by any definition. Asking them to pay more, so that the poor pay less in medical bills, has a certain logic to it. But asking them to pay more, so that the wealthy pay less in taxes? That's hard to justify."

--Johathan Cohn, The New Republic