Mitt Romney is turning 65 today. That means he's now eligible for Medicare, the government-run insurance program that covers about 47 million older Americans. But he's not planning to enroll.
Medicare has emerged as a contentious campaign issue. Romney has embraced the proposal of Rep. Paul Ryan, which aims to keep Medicare intact for people currently in the program and for those who are approaching eligibility age, while transforming it for everybody else into a system of subsidies for people to purchase private insurance. In time, that proposal would essentially end Medicare as it currently exists and vastly increase out-of-pocket costs for participants. At the same time, Romney has criticized President Obama for cutting spending on Medicare in his budget.
Romney is doing his part to keep Medicare solvent — he's not signing up for it. The campaign has told my colleague Holly Bailey that the 65-year-old candidate plans to remain on his private insurance and will not enroll in Medicare.
It seems the only taxpayer-funded health care Romney wants is the coverage that comes with the position of President of the United States.
Daniel Gross is economics editor at Yahoo! Finance.
Follow him on Twitter @grossdm; email him at grossdaniel11@yahoo.com.