WASHINGTON – Americans are living longer, and Republicans want to raise the Medicare eligibility age as part of any deal to reduce the government’s huge deficits.

But what sounds like a prudent sacrifice for an aging society that must watch its budget could have some surprising consequences, including higher premiums for people on Medicare.

Unlike tax hikes, which spawn hard partisan divisions, increasing the Medicare age could help ease a budget compromise because President Barack Obama has previously been willing to consider it. A worried AARP, the seniors’ lobby, is already running ads knocking down the idea as a quick fix that would cause long-term problems. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., doesn’t like it either. More.

Raising Medicare eligibility age: Good idea or bad?

Four days before critical primary elections, Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney outlined a far-reaching plan Friday to delay Americans’ eligibility for Medicare and Social Security. Romney said the gradual shift, as people live longer, is needed to steer the giant benefit programs toward economic sustainability. Speaking to the Detroit Economic Club – in cavernous Ford Field, where the Detroit Lions football team plays – he also sought primary election support in Michigan, which votes on Tuesday along with Arizona. Romney said previous steps to toughen government emission standards had “provided a benefit to some of the foreign automakers” at the expense of American companies. He said future changes should be worked out cooperatively between government and industry/Associated Press. More here. (AP photo of Mitt Romney in Michigan Friday)

Question: Do you agree with the proposal by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney to save Medicare and Social Security by increasing eligibility age beginning in 2022?

Idaho Gov. Butch Otter is among three GOP members of Congress in 2003 who say Newt Gingrich lobbied them to vote for a $400 billion Medicare prescription drug benefit. Otter told the Des Moines Register that Gingrich was “full of crap” in making a case for the bill. Still, Otter ultimately voted for the measure. Gingrich has repeatedly denied any lobbying and told reporters in Mason City, Iowa, on Wednesday that Otter and other accusers were wrong: “I'm allowed as a citizen to say I'd like to see this passed and that's not lobbying. I wasn't paid by anybody to say that. It was a public position I had taken for a practical reason…That was a public position taken publicly and is literally by definition not lobbying”/Dan Popkey, Idaho Statesman. More here. (AP photo)

Question: Who do you believe?

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, center, accompanied by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sen. Christopher Dodd, left, and others, speaks during a Democratic health care rally Tuesday on Capitol Hill in Washington. Associated Press photos

WASHINGTON – Americans will feel the pain before the gain from the health care overhaul Democrats are close to pushing through Congress.

Proposed taxes and fees on upper-income earners, insurers, even tanning parlors, take effect quickly. So would Medicare cuts.

Benefits, such as subsidies for lower middle-income households, consumer protections for all, eliminating the prescription coverage gap for seniors, come gradually. More here.

Hmm…taxes and fees take effect quickly. Coverage for the uninsured not likely ‘till 2013. See anything wrong with this picture?

Update: Exultant Senate Democrats pushed President Barack Obama‘s landmark health care overhaul past a final procedural hurdle Wednesday, setting up a Christmas Eve vote to pass the legislation extending coverage to 30 million Americans.