evidence: America's rapidly aging society is placing financial strain on its two core old-age programs, Social Security and Medicare. Now, as Republicans are close to winning back control of the House in the midterm elections, some lawmakers are embracing plans for overhauling the programs — including raising the age for seniors to claim benefits to 70 years old. Under a plan developed by the Republican Study Committee, a group of conservatives in the House, senior citizens would face a five-year delay to claim Medicare, the government health care program for seniors that currently allows people to access the program when they turn 65. And the retirement age for Social Security would also increase to 70, compared with today's full retirement age of between 66 and 67 years old. [...] According to the Republican view, the best way to reset the program would be to cut spending by reducing the number of years that seniors can claim these programs. They also want to link retirement age to future changes in life expectancy, which could mean that the age for claiming Social Security could creep even higher than 70.