Advocating for a Policy Proposal

Advocating for a Policy Proposal
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The Policy Problem
Medicare is the federal health insurance created in 1965 for people who were 65 years and above. In 1972, the government amended the plan to include people who are less than 65 years who live with a permanent disability. Currently, the insurance program also covers people with End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) (Lurie & Experton, 2021. More than 17 percent of the population in America relies on Medicare to access healthcare (Skopec et al., 2019).
Over the years, federal and national spending on the program has been rising. In 2019, Medicare spending accounted for 21% of the total national health care spending (Martin et al., 2021). Inflation, higher life expectancy, and the rising number of people who rely on this program have contributed to the increasing cost of health insurance. For this reason, there was a proposal to raise the age for medicare eligibility from 65 years to 67 years.
The Policy Proposal and how it would be Implemented
The federal and national governments have had to increase their budgetary allowance in line with the growth of expenditure for the Medicare program. The rising cost prompted proposals for adjustments to the program to contain the expenditure. One of the proposals includes raising the age of eligibility for medicare benefits from 65 years to 67 years (Cubanski et al., 2019). Although this could considerably curb the increasing expenditure, it would lock out elderly people who are in need of treatment but do not meet the age requirements.
The option proposed for implementation was to raise the qualifying age by two months every year until the eligibility age reaches and remains 67 years. The Social Security’s full retirement age which was increased from 65 to 66 would be further increased to 67 years. Although this action would save the federal government money, it would also delay medical benefits to the affected citizens by months. For this reason, the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) differs from the proposal.
Relevant Evidence for the Position Stated
The proposal to increase the eligibility age for Medicare would shift the costs to people between the age of 65 and 67 years who would not be covered by the program. This means that people within this age bracket would incur health care costs from their pockets. Most people who are covered by medicare have modest incomes and rely heavily on the program (Jacobs, 2021). Therefore, they would have difficulty affording insurance, and some would forego treatment altogether.
Rodger C. Lipitz Center reported that 68% of beneficiaries with low incomes have three or more chronic conditions (Schoen et al., 2017). If people with chronic conditions are not covered and cannot afford to cater for their own treatment, most of them would forego the much-needed health care. By the time they are eligible for Medicare cover, their health would have deteriorated thus raising the healthcare cost.
The policy proposal to increase the eligibility age assumes that those who would be locked out of the program would look for coverage e...