Americans aged 55 to 64 face unique challenges in obtaining affordable healthcare. They are often rejected for coverage by corporate insurance companies due to pre-existing conditions. Although the Healthcare Reform Act will eliminate private insurers' ability to reject coverage based on pre-existing conditions, the for-profit insurance companies will find ways to avoid providing affordable coverage to older Americans who are statistically prone to serious health conditions.
Providing Medicare as an option for those 55-64 would remove or reduce the cost of insuring older employees from employers providing health coverage through private insurance companies and would provide older Americans an affordable option for mandatory coverage as required by the Healthcare Reform Act.