This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Tuesday, October 2nd, 2012. I'm Caleb Brown.

Should you be compelled to join Medicare at age 65? And if you're in Medicare, should you lose your Social Security if you spend your own money on your own health care?

Lou Randall is a plaintiff in the case of Hall v. Sebelius, challenging just those kinds of restrictions.

Randall is a founder of E-Trade and a board member at the Cato Institute.

We spoke Sunday in Asheville, North Carolina.

You had mentioned a long time ago that to Michael Cannon,

our director of health policy studies at

the Cato Institute that turning 65 is something that ought to be investigated and

so explain that well it was it was actually the other way around.

I think I remembered a conversation that Michael and I had when Michael was saying that if you

weren't careful, you could get trapped into things.

If you were age, if you turned 65 and

didn't opt out the right things so I consulted a couple of lawyers and they

didn't understand the problem.

If you, Medicare Part A is free, she says.

And this is the Medicare expert.

It turns out, lawyers who are expert in Medicare are expert at getting you in, not getting you out.

And they don't understand that anyone would want out.

So I called Michael and asked him the question and he again and he said well he didn't

really know for sure and and then he ended up referring me to Kent Masterson Brown

because he said Kent knows more about Medicare than anybody.

So...

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