Obama, Senators set 11th-hour fiscal cliff meeting

Raising the Medicare eligibility age to 67 may be off the table in the fiscal cliff budget negotiations, according to reports from the Associated Press. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the Senate's number two Democrat, told reporters earlier this month that changing the eligibility age is "no longer one of the items being considered by the White House" to negotiate the troubled budgetary waters.

Other Democratic Senators have been less specific, refusing to eliminate the possibility entirely as negotiations drag out to the 11^th hour.

The President and congressional leaders are scheduled to meet at 3 p.m. today to discuss what most political watchers expect to be slimmed-down proposals from both sides to solve the fiscal cliff for now—including delays in sequestration, a stop-gap “doc-fix,” and possible compromises in the threshold for potential tax-cut extensions.

Pamela Tabar

Pamela Tabar was editor-in-chief of I Advance Senior Care from 2013-2018. She has worked as a writer and editor for healthcare business media since 1998, including as News Editor of Healthcare Informatics. She has a master’s degree in journalism from Kent State University and a master’s degree in English from the University of York, England.