Medicare's History Belies Claim That Medicare-for-All Would Disrupt Care

[eridani]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steffie-woolhandler/medicares-history-belies-_b_9245484.html

Hillary Clinton and others charge that Bernie Sanders' Medicare-for-All plan would disrupt and threaten Americans' health care. But the smooth rollout of Medicare-for-Seniors in 1965 -- which many had also predicted would bring chaos -- belies that charge.

Medicare, signed into law on July 30, 1965, went live just 11 months later. By then, 18.9 million seniors had signed up, 99 percent of those eligible.

To accomplish this feat (largely without computers) the Social Security Administration mailed an information leaflet and sign-up cards preprinted with each individual's name and Social Security number (see example below) to seniors on the Social Security and railroad retirement rolls, as well as Civil Service annuitants and a million other seniors identified through IRS records.

[Vinca]

1. And the vast majority of people enrolled in Medicare are happy as clams with it.

Opening it for everyone wouldn't be terribly hard. Just drop the entry age every year for a period of years to stagger enrollment. New enrollees would, of course, pay a premium as seniors do. I don't get the big "disruption" claim.

[greymattermom]

2. First step

drop it to 62 to allow early retirees who receive social security to sign up when they sign up for social security. A lot of older folks lost their jobs during the recent depression and didn't go back to work.

[Vinca]

3. I would lower it even further, in 10 year increments, starting with 55 instead of 62.