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Conn PostSTAMFORD -- U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., this week denied he has reversed his position on expanding Medicare in the health care reform bill, despite acknowledging he supported a similar program in a September Advocate video interview.
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In a Sept. 2 interview with editors from The Advocate and the Connecticut Post, however, Lieberman said he has supported expanding "the existing, successful public health insurance programs, Medicare and Medicaid," though he did not specify whether he would vote for such a provision in the health care overhaul.
"When it came to Medicare, I was very focused on a group, post-50, maybe more like post-55, people who have retired early or unfortunately have been laid off early, who lose their health insurance, and they're too young to qualify for Medicare," he said in a video question-and-answer session with Advocate readers. "And what I was proposing was they have an option to buy into Medicare early and, again, on the premise that would be less expensive than the enormous cost" of obtaining private insurance at that age.
Erika Masonhall, Lieberman's spokeswoman, said his comments were made before full reporting was completed on U.S. Sen. Max Baucus' bill, which contained extensive health insurance reforms, "including a more-narrow age rating for pricing health insurance premiums and extensive affordability credits that would benefit this specific group of individuals."
"Any inclusion of a Medicare buy-in for that same age group would be duplicative of what is already in the bill, would put the government on the hook for billions of additional dollars, and would potentially threaten the solvency of Medicare, which is already in a perilous state," Masonhall wrote in an e-mailed statement.
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http://www.connpost.com/ci_13996897?source=most_emailed
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