- Medicare Means-testing on the way? President Obama is eying this common Republican policy idea as a means to a big debt limit deal. As the White House was careful to point out, for the benefit of a liberal base dim on imposing costs on low-income recipients, the Affordable Care Act has already resulted in slightly higher premiums for couples earning over $170,000, or singles earning $85,000 — his ideal would be to raise these further, to “modestly higher premiums.” The question is, would it work? The GOP has been abandoning their own policy proposals when Obama gives them a thumbs up since the health care debate; modest as this is, and we don’t see why that would change. source