Feb 19, 2014 1 min read

A headline Tuesday on a story about the benefits from Obamacare on older workers who have lost their jobs may well have caused offense to many of our readers. “Elderly are early winners under health law,” the headline read. All of the people interviewed for the Associated Press article were in their mid to late 50s.

For the benefit of youthful headline writers and to set the record straight, the elderly are not affected by the Affordable Care Act because they are already covered by Medicare, for which every American over age 65 is eligible.

Young journalists, beware. Those of us in our late 50s are not quite ready to be elderly yet. Some of us on Medicare aren’t, either.