Ted Kennedy, Jr., Member of the Firm in the Health Care & Life Sciences practice, in the firm’s Stamford, Connecticut, office, was quoted in HealthLeaders, in “Election Night Preview for Healthcare Leaders,” by Jack O’Brien.
Following is an excerpt:
Ted Kennedy, Jr. works as a member of Epstein Becker Green’s healthcare and life sciences practice. Kennedy, son of former Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., served as a member of the Connecticut Senate from 2015 to 2019.
Kennedy said he is focused on four main areas of healthcare policy distinction between Trump and Biden: coronavirus regulatory relief, surprise billing, drug pricing, and health coverage expansion.
He said that it is unlikely that a Biden administration would pursue a ‘Medicare-for-All’ style proposal and would instead focus on lowering the age of Medicare eligibility to 60, as Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., discussed at the sole vice presidential debate last month.
“[Harris] specifically mentioned allowing Americans to buy in to Medicare at 60, and I think the reason why that idea has legs now is because of the ‘job lock.’ In order to make room for newcomers in the marketplace as we try to emerge from the pandemic, allowing people to buy in is just a good idea so that [consumers] can have job flexibility,” Kennedy said. “I also think the overall cost of commercial plans will go down because you are taking these individuals who are probably more high utilizers, people between the age of 60 and 65, out of the risk pool. This means that the cost for regular commercial health insurance below 60 is likely to go down because of that.”
