Even the Medicare for all crowd should support this, if for no other reason than it would be an excellent "demonstration" program, and allow for measured, steady expansion of the program. Might be a good idea to put a requirement in that says that employees of companies that have employee medical insurance can't be forced onto Medicare.

Step 2 might be expanding it to small businesses of 5 employees or less.

Part A is mandatory at age 65, but there's no cost to the individual. Part B costs money, but it can be deferred WITH NO PENALTY if you're insured by an employer's group plan, whether it's your plan or your spouse's plan. I didn't get Part B/D until I was 69 because I was under my wife's employer's group plan. I did have to get a letter (very standard) from her company when she retired so Medicare wouldn't penalize my late entry into Plans B/D.

The only Medicare we were "forced onto" was Plan A, no big deal.

I don't understand your "Step 2". Medicare is an individual thing, not an employer-provided group plan.

At my company, once you are 65, you are required to sign up for medicare (part B) and the company insurance becomes a "medigap" policy (currently you can still get their drug plan instead of Part D). I don't think the congress will want to see a "medicare at 50" suddenly unburden alot of employers from funding their employees health insurance.

It has been proposed for a couple of decades now that small businesses be allowed to provide health insurance for their employees by purchasing it from the Medicare system. It would be a limited set of businesses that qualify (less than 20 employees or something). I think Gore spoke of this in one of the debates.

Letting small businesses buy into Medicare would just be another insurance option, hopefully affordable, and great for employees.

Universal health care is the goal but I don't think we are able to make the leap in one step.

This allows for a big advance while allowing for a transition over time.

The big deal about this is allows for people to retire early if they desire. Right now, health care keeps a lot of people in the work force longer than they want to stay.

It also opens up opportunities for entrepreneurship since people would be less tethered to established companies.

Get it scored by the CBO so we can stop talking about this nonsense. The costs for a risk pool of people ages 50-64 will be prohibitively expensive. People will be better off buying private insurance on the exchanges, because at least those risk pools have younger people in them.

Call me when the CBO scores it. Until then it's just a pipe dream.

the risk, because those who are younger are healthier, and it offsets the older population in that pool.

This proposal skews the age group toward an older population, and doesn't include a younger population in that proposal, and unless the premiums are increased substantially to offset that as you pointed out, it is a no go

in the pool, instead of waiting until people head into heart attack country to put them in?

I'm not an actuary or anything, but it seems to me that an insurance pool with nothing but older people in it will get pretty expensive.

Permit buy-in for persons 55 - 65 AND 25 - 35, for example, as a start. Expand similarly later.

happen in this environment

For the self employed and some small employers, buying into Medicare may offer a more economical option than the current healthcare exchanges.

That would take a load off of parents so they don't need to stress about how to obtain medical care for their children.

They could name it the "Think of the Children!" bill since rightwing evangelicals tend to obsess about the health of a child only until they are born.

the vastly more expensive needs of the older group. That's the problem.

young people will pay more in premiums than they would otherwise.

That means young people are disadvantaged. Not sure that is right either.

I'm for pursuing this proposal because something has to be done. But until we wise up and bite the bullet by raising taxes to cover health care, substantially restructure the healthcare system, cut waste like our bloated defense budget, provide subsidies for those less well off, etc., we aren't going to achieve the system we need/deserve.

I am willing to admit I do not entirely understand ( to bad the GOP can't admit it ) and this is the type of thing that gets confusing for my learning disability to grasp. Obviously I understand it enough to know we should have it.

I am 51 and disabled and am on both Medicare and Medicaid and then a little more than a year ago I got United Health added which for me has been a blessing. I am finally getting dental and visual and a few other things the first two would never have offered me ( hell, I could get acupuncture. ) It also covers medication. I do not have to pay a premium but I do still have to pay deductible and co-pay but not much.

I have however been rushing to get as much done as possible though, in case our shitheads in the senate manage to take it away.

I do not understand if the Medicare for all ( or even 50 and older ) would work the same as my insurance or better. What is offered and how would it work. I do know that if you make to little money you can not be on United Health which makes no sense because I make more than some I know and if I do not have to pay a premium why do they not qualify?

...it's that it would be provided by the Government rather than the private sector, and would be cheaper by 1) taking out the profit motive, and 2) increasing the pool of users, allowing lower costs due to higher volumes.

Everybody else either tries some in depth explanation or tell me to look at literature on it. Some people do not understand learning disabilities and that they have many different levels. Most people can not tell I have a learning disability but those who have dealt with it or are professionals can see it.

It seems like what I am on would make sense as it is a branch of Medicare but everybody needs to qualify for it despite their age and income. I was very happy to get it as I have never had anything that covers almost everything that I need. Well, OK, I was once on my ex's medical through a school he worked for but that cost $300 a month for just me so I was on it for a very short time.

25 - 40 year olds are cash cows for Private Insurers. Why should these parasites be protected from competition from Medicare at any age?