The Washington Examiner Quotes Eagan Kemp on Medicare Expansion Package
By Cassidy Morrison
The report, supported by the Partnership for America’s Health Care Future, concluded the change to eligibility age would increase Medicare spending by about $83 billion in 2022, while the federal deficit would rise by $32.2 billion.
Eagan Kemp, a health policy expert at the left-leaning watchdog group Public Citizen, told the Washington Examiner the estimation should be taken with a grain of salt “given that this sort of study is funded by folks that just want to kill” the effort to lower Medicare eligibility.
Rather, he believed the CRFB’s estimate to be more accurate, adding, “Obviously there’s a number of factors at play depending on what else ends up being in the mix.”
“Depending on sort of how the overall Medicare improvement and expansion pieces pass, if we sort of hit the home run … adding, dental, vision, and hearing benefits, lowering the age and adding [a cap for out-of-pocket costs], both folks in the 60 to 65 range as well as folks 65 and older are going to really be experiencing that better version of Medicare where they feel less pressure to go into a Medicare Advantage plan,” Kemp said.