Overview

Improving access to Medicare for those from 62 to 65 would help many uninsured older Americans. One way to achieve this would be to provide vouchers for people with low lifetime earnings, and to establish tax-favored IRAs for people with higher incomes, so that everyone could buy into Medicare at age 62. People in both the savings and voucher programs would not be required to sign up for Medicare, but would be offered a range of health insurance choices. They could buy into a Medicare+Choice plan, or purchase employer-sponsored group, retiree, or COBRA benefits if they wished. They might even purchase non-group insurance, although few would be expected to do so, because such plans tend to have the highest premiums and the narrowest benefits. In order to be eligible for funding from the savings or voucher programs, all plans would have to provide coverage that was at least equivalent to traditional Medicare.

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