Two new Kaiser Family Foundation analyses suggest that lowering the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 60 could significantly reduce health costs for employers. The shift could potentially facililate lower premiums or higher wages for employees.
Lowering the Medicare eligibility age to 60 could reduce costs for employer health plans by as much as 15 percent, and 30 percent if the age is lowered to 55, according to one analysis.
Though health care needs tend to increase with age, the average monthly healthcare spending of people ages 60 to 64 enrolled in employer plans is 38 percent higher than that of Medicare beneficiaries ages 65-69, according to the second analysis.