Allowing early Medicare buy-in gets push

When Robert Barnhouse of Richardson, Texas, lost his job in October, he tried to hold on to his health insurance but quickly found he couldn't afford the $500 monthly premiums.

[Lou Adams]

How can I remain informed of Congressional action on Medicare Buy-in for people 62 - 65?

[Candace]

Sign up for Google Alert. It's free. Just type in the topic you are interested in, and they will send you a collection of news updates as often as you like. Some email providers like Yahoo also provide this service.

[Greg]

Yes to early buy in to Medicare buy in, I'm 59 years old and the company that I work for 37 years want to replace me with a younger less paid person. They say there will be 10% less of you all this time next year. I would be unable to buy health insurance on the market.

[Lawyer]

Depending on the affordabilty -- which is to say depeding on everything -- this makes a ton of sense. But if a public option is off the table it is hard to understand why this is poltically viable. Even though it should be.

[Lawyer]

Lou Adams wrote:

How can I remain informed of Congressional action on Medicare Buy-in for people 62 - 65?

You can follow congressional action at www.thomas.gov but it is not the easiest way to get info. It lists all action on bils day by day. As someone else notes, you can also set up a google news alert with any words you want to flag. This will be news if it happens though.

[Lawyer]

http://www.google.com/help/faq_newsalerts.htm...

to set up a google news alert for "Medicare buy-in" go to the above URL "Medicare" alone will get you an ocean though.

[pumpkin]

I think everyone American should be able to buy-in to Medicare if they want. My mother in law is 64 and she pays over $900.00 per month in health care premiums. Next year, when she goes on medicare, her monthly premium for Part B will be about 100.00

If she were able to buy in to Medicare right now at cost, her premiums would be about 300.00 per month.

Think of how many people who are now forced to have no health care because they have a pre-existing condition and can't get any kind of affordable insurance or are denied completely.

I think this idea to buy-in might save Medicare.

[pumpkin]

Hey Lou we might be neighbors

[Rep]

Way too logical to happen and it doesn't create enough stupid to get someone elected.

[Merriam Webster]

Greg wrote:

Yes to early buy in to Medicare buy in, I'm 59 years old and the company that I work for 37 years want to replace me with a younger less paid person. They say there will be 10% less of you all this time next year. I would be unable to buy health insurance on the market.

Yes to Medicare buy in, because people in their early 50's are already regarded as seniors by employers and human resource managers (and the AARP for that matter). All this focus on retaining the young and educated and avoiding brain drain in our state, while pushing aside the older employee who still has a dozen years or more to keep working in order to afford living. Yes, allow early buy in to Medicare so that people can retire with a health care plan, rather than hanging on to a job that might be deadening your soul if not threatening your health, so that one can leave and open up that position to the next generation (if that job is not outsourced already).

I hope this is something that will be put into effect in the health reform. I can't believe myself that I see something good in what Baucus is considering.