>> The fraction of the population that is eligible for Medicare skews much, much older than the overall population and so is exactly the population that I'd exp

>> The fraction of the population that is eligible for Medicare skews much, much older than the overall population and so is exactly the population that I'd expect to be more costly. This is another reason to decouple insurance from our employment. These plans are cheaper because the pool of people is all reasonably healthy, and able to work. The purpose of insurance is to amortize costs over time and population, but the industry has successfully dumped the highest cost patients onto the government plan.