Name: Sanders Plans Push to Expand and Enhance Medicare in the Infrastructure Bill
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Sanders Plans Push to Expand and Enhance Medicare in the Infrastructure Bill

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SharePolitics &amp; ElectionsRacial JusticePolitics &amp; ElectionsEnvironment &amp; HealthPolitics &amp; ElectionsWar &amp; PeaceSen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont is Democratic lawmakers to use the forthcoming multi-trillion dollar to significantly expand Medicare by lowering the eligibility age from 65 to either 55 or 60 — an idea President Joe Biden on the campaign trail last April.Sanders, the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, also wants to extend Medicare’s coverage to often-expensive services such as dental work, glasses and eye surgeries, and hearing aids, Politico.“We have to look at the structural long-term problems facing our people,” Sanders told the outlet in an interview Friday. “We’re talking about physical infrastructure, affordable housing. We’re talking about transforming our energy system to deal with climate change. We’re talking about human infrastructure.”“In the rescue plan, we were able to take a major step forward in lowering child poverty — very important,” Sanders added. “Now I want to deal with issues facing seniors as well.”The Vermont senator is aiming to include his Medicare proposal, which has not yet been finalized, in an infrastructure-focused spending package that the White House and congressional Democrats are . The legislation will likely have to go through the filibuster-proof reconciliation process given to the nascent plan.A leading congressional supporter of the to expand Medicare to everyone in the U.S., the Vermont senator said his plan to make the program more generous in the near-term could be funded partially by allowing Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices, an idea Sanders believes would bring in around $450 billion in revenue over the next decade.Earlier this week, as Common Dreams , Sanders and dozens of his congressional allies introduced , which would lift a clause prohibiting the Health and Human Services Department from negotiating lower prescription drug prices on behalf of Medicare Part D beneficiaries.Surveys have shown that the idea of lowering the Medicare eligibility age — which has been at 65 or older since the program’s inception in 1965 — is popular with the American public. A GoHealth from last October found that 70% of respondents not on Medicare at the time and 58% of Medicare beneficiaries supported the idea.Additionally, according to an by the healthcare consulting firm Avalere, lowering the Medicare eligibility age to 60 could extend the program’s coverage to as many as 23 million people.“It’s the right thing to do,” Sanders adviser Faiz Shakir Friday. “It’s massively impactful. It’s popular.”This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.RelatedAs budget chairman, Sanders has introduced bills to tax corporations and the wealthy while helping the working class.If the workers successfully unionize, Sanders has said it would be a “shot heard around the world.”In a recent meeting, Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema reiterated opposition to Sen. Bernie Sanders’s wage bill.Get daily news, in-depth reporting and critical analysis from the journalists, activists and thinkers who are working to improve our world..

SharePolitics &amp; ElectionsRacial JusticePolitics &amp; ElectionsEnvironment &amp; HealthPolitics &amp; ElectionsWar &amp; PeaceSen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont is Democratic lawmakers to use the forthcoming multi-trillion dollar to significantly expand Medicare by lowering the eligibility age from 65 to either 55 or 60 — an idea President Joe Biden on the campaign trail last April.Sanders, the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, also wants to extend Medicare’s coverage to often-expensive services such as dental work, glasses and eye surgeries, and hearing aids, Politico.“We have to...

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Jake Johnson is a staff writer for Common Dreams.

https://www.commondreams.org/author/jake-johnson-staff-writer

Jake Johnson

Truthout is a nonprofit news organization dedicated to providing independent reporting and commentary on a diverse range of social justice issues.

Sanders Plans Push to Expand and Enhance Medicare in the Infrastructure Bill

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