On the recordJuly 15, 1997
Well, as you know, on principle I support means testing. The House has spoken overwhelmingly on the age increase. The problem I have with the age increase is that one of the biggest difficulties we have today with Americans without health insurance are people who retire early at 55 and lose their employer-based health insurance and then, because they've had--they've been somewhat ill or had problems, can't get other health insurance until they qualify for Medicare. So if we're going to raise the age limit, we need to have some idea of how those people would be insured. And I don't know that we do now. That's been my problem with that. But I would hope we can agree to some sort of a premium that's enforceable and that's fair and that doesn't drive people out of the Medicare system.
Source
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