Rep. Bill Owens, D-Plattsburgh, said that for now, he's against raising the eligibility age for Medicare from 65 to 67.

Which is interesting, because if he wins re-election, he'll turn 65 about halfway through his next term in office.

Mr. Owens gave a hearty laugh when I pointed this out to him, and didn't object when I said I'd have to point it out to the readers.

"That's OK," Mr. Owens said. "When you do that, you need to make sure you tell everybody I'm not on the federal health-insurance program, too.”

Mr. Owens is on his wife's health insurance, Mr. Owens said. His wife, who works at Mountain Lake PBS, has a better plan than the one offered to congressmen through the federal government, he said.

He does take federal benefits for dental and vision, and he is enrolled in the federal pension program.

Mr. Owens, 63, said he's not sure whether he would opt out of the Medicare program when he turns 65.

"I don't know. It would depend," Mr. Owens said. "To be truthful with you, I don't know about the Medicare as a participant. I know about the economics of it, and the concepts, but I haven't ever studied what that would mean personally."

He said he'd probably research the matter in the months leading up to his 65th birthday.

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