This week on the podcast, we’re going to talk about Medicare, and how it can be expanded.
The news peg for this edition was Joe Biden’s announcement last week that he will support lowering the age of Medicare eligibility to 60. This brought to mind a recent study on ways to expand Medicare eligibility from the National Academy of Social Insurance — a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization made up of the nation’s leading experts on social insurance. For this study, the academy convened a study panel of 27 top experts in economics, health policy, political science, sociology, medicine and law.
Joining me is the co-chair of the NASI study, Marilyn Moon. Marilyn is one of the nation’s top experts on Medicare. She’s an economist who has written extensively on health policy and reform issues related to Medicare and other social insurance topics. Along with her academic career, she is a former public trustee of both Medicare and Social Security. She also has worked for the Congressional Budget Office and she was the founding director of AARP’s public policy institute.
I really recommend the report to anyone interested in getting past the headline level of understanding on this issue. It offers a fascinating in-depth look at three approaches to expanding Medicare eligibility: lowering the eligibility age, establishing Medicare-for-all, and creating a Medicare buy-in.
I asked Marilyn to provide an overview of these three approaches to expanding Medicare eligibility. On next week’s podcast, we’ll drill a little further into the arguments for Medicare for All.
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