According to the article “Vouchers Proposed for Medicare in 2021″ by Jackie Calmes on NYTimes.com, Washington has proposed to turn Medicare into a voucher program in 2021, and also raise the retirement age and give states the ability to handle Medicaid through grants.

This was proposed by two members of President Obama’s debt reduction commission, representative Paul D. Ryan and Alice M. Rivlin, a former budget director to President Clinton.  President Obama’s commission will debate the Ryan-Rivlin proposal since there is a lot of passion behind these types of large changes to government programs.  It could change the way people people view retirement and cause a lot of resistance from members of Congress.

Ryan and Rivlin propose that people who turn 65 on or after January 1, 2021 receive a government voucher to purchase private health insurance from companies who are part of an exchange which was created through health care reform.  This is a drastic change to the way Medicare is handled now, and it will be extremely interesting to see how it all pans out.