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Posted on 11/12/2026 4:27:02 PM PST by MinorityRepublican
The debate over the progressive push for Medicare for All has dominated the early days following Democrats’ landslide victory last week.
But leading progressives are floating another idea as a first step that could get broader buy-in from the Democratic caucus: lowering the Medicare age from 65 to 55.
Incoming House Ways and Means Committee Chair Richard Neal (D-Mass.) told us he’s open to the idea and could even mark it up next year.
“I’m open to that. I don’t know about [age] 55, but I’m open to a conversation about it,” Neal said. “I think that’s the way to approach this.”
Neal said he didn’t know the ideal age. Asked whether his committee could mark up a bill to lower it next year, he answered simply, “Yes.”
Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), incoming House Energy and Commerce Committee chair, said he’s open to multiple options for getting to universal coverage.
“Another proposal is what was originally in the ACA on the House side, which was the public option,” Pallone told us. “These are all things that we should be looking at.”
Backstory. Medicare for All has become a critical issue on the left over the last decade, largely thanks to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), although the issue goes back much longer.
After the election, Sanders called on Democrats to lower the Medicare age to 55 through budget reconciliation, which can pass on a party-line vote, as an “immediate first step.” Sanders also wants to add dental, vision and hearing coverage to Medicare and expand children’s coverage.
Other big Medicare for All proponents see lowering the qualifying age as a good opening move, though they’d want more eventually. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) is open to it as an initial step, but she wants a committee markup of the full legislation.
(Excerpt) Read more at punchbowl.news ...
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Oh yeah, hammer the young people more with increased Medicare taxes. That’s what they voted for!
Mandate the retirement age to 55. 🙄
Lower the age for browns
Raise the age for Whites
How do you accelerate the rate of Social Security going bankrupt?
Who cares? I'm a Boomer. I'm cashing out! As long as my checks keep coming, I couldn't care less if everyone else gets screwed over. That's their problem, not mine.
The greedy left doesn’t seem to realize that “Medicare” is not free, but expensive government insurance. They have started a slogan that sounds nice: “Medicare for all!”. How much money will be funneled into Bernie Sanders’s pocket with all the Medicare payments piling up? I thought Obamacare was supposed to solve all their problems. These young people laughed when I said democrats would raise taxes.
Pretty smart. It’s called gradualism. Starts with my nephew getting on his parents health care plan up until age 26. He didn’t need health care at that age so no big deal-right? Think of the frog being boiled.
We lost the senate seat in Iowa. Next one’s up in ‘28. If they end up with 2 senators and a democrat governor I’d go for the ethanol subsidies. It should be done now. Slow at first. If we got nothing to lose cut em’ off at the knees. Doable?
Medicare, frankly, sucks.
I haven’t run into this much bureaucracy in my life. Trying to get a prescription for a life saving med filled today cost me well over an hour.
I never cease to be amazed at how available Pure Gasoline is in Iowah.
The issue is control over all.
Once the gubmint has control of your healthcare they have complete control over you.
I guess that moron Neal wants to bankrupt the country faster than Congress has been doing.
This is hilarious because the deteriorating state of the federal finances is going to force the exact opposite. They can talk about lowering the age to sound good to low-information voters, but they know what they are actually doing in the next few years will be the reverse.
Everyone will find out that Socialism won't work.
It took the Russians 74 years to figure that out but we are lucky enough that it won't take that long.
Medicare For All would literally endanger our lives as we wait for appointments, for specialized tests and for surgery and other interventions——sometimes until we die first.
This means it in my opinion it is self defense to fight against Dems and Socialists. They are out to get all of us already with various zealots and crackpots caused by Secret Service, ICE, FBI and local police. Only one side fighting.
You will probably have to fly to Cancun for a procedure (assuming you can afford to pay out of pocket).
RE: We should embrace Medicare for All.
Everyone will find out that Socialism won’t work.
Problem is, although I know we are on the same side, the American people are at least 50% dangerously naive.
A handful of FReepers said when Bill Clinton first ran, “I’m voting for him because it he gets in it will seal the doom of the Dem Party because it will be obvious how bad his policies are.”
My dear wife said to me as he was through part of that first term when I said the people will vote him out—”No. They will re-elect him.” She was right, of course. And after impeachment and scandals including several women who were raped and said so (Broderick, Paula Jones), plus the Monica dirty jokes, he left the White House on his last day in office with the highest approval of any President.
And we call know the lies from Obama and Pelosi about the glorious Obamacare were proven wrong such as “lowering” a family’s costs-—most pay $4,000 more than pre-Obamacare for a family and have to get various permissions to “keep the doctor you like” such as specialists not part of the system any longer.
People are dumber than ever in 2026.
typo not “caused by” authorities. Arrested by them.
We can give them a lecture but they are not going to listen to us.
So they will have to learn the hard way.
Fortunately, we are already $40 trillion in debt so now is the "right" time to enact Medicare for All.
Checks and Balances worked back then.
It brought the Republican Revolution of 1994.
Bill Clinton was forced to become a Centrist for the remainder of his presidency.
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