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Expanding Medicare to include people ages 60 to 64 remains a divisive issue among members of the American Medical Association House of Delegates.
In total, 1.7 million Americans between ages 60 and 64 remain uninsured; another 3.8 million are on Medicaid, Rajadhar Reddy, an alternate delegate and medical student from Houston speaking on behalf of the Medical Student Section, said at a meeting of the AMA reference committee on medical service. We have a unique opportunity in this momentous time in health reform to either expand or increase coverage for another 5.5 million people through this proposal. Reddy was explaining the section s proposal that our American Medical Association advocate that the eligibility threshold to receive Medicare as a federal entitlement be lowered from age 65 to age 60.