Medicare Cutoff Age Still Up in the Air

The House Budget Committee has not agreed on whether to change
Medicare benefits for people 55 years and older in the fiscal blueprint it will
release next week. According to Reps. Bill Flores (R-Texas) and Rob Woodall
(R-Ga.), both Budget panel members, the age could be 55 or 56 come Tuesday's
budget unveiling. "Things will continue to be changed and tweaked and moved
right up until the rollout," Woodall said. Analysts are waiting to see how
House budget chief Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) will kill the deficit in 10 years without
breaking the GOP's promise not to change Medicare benefits for people who are
less than a decade away from enrolling in the program. Ryan said that his new
proposal will only be modestly different from last year's and will not
represent a major step to the right as some have predicted. “For a number of
reasons, and with some honest policy changes, we can get to balance,” he said.
“It doesn’t take enormous changes in our budget to get there.”

Soure/more: The Hill