Health insurance and the elderly: data from MCBS (Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey).
This article shows the supplemental insurance distribution and Medicare spending per capita by insurance status for elderly persons in 1991. The data are from the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS) and Medicare bill records. Persons with Medicare only are a fairly small share of the elderly (11.4 percent). About three-fourths of the Medicare elderly have some form of private insurance. The share with Medicaid is 11.9 percent, which has increased recently as qualified Medicare beneficiaries (QMBs) started to receive partial Medicaid benefits. In general, Medicare per capita spending levels increase as supplemental insurance comes closer to first dollar coverage. When the data were recalculated to control for differences in reported health status between the insurance groups, essentially the same spending differences were observed.
Office of the Actuary, Health Care Financing Administration, Baltimore, MD 21207.
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D001741:Black or African American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D003625:Data Collection; D005260:Female; D005102:Health Expenditures / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D017054:Insurance, Medigap / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D006278:Medicare / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012737:Sex Factors; D014481:United States; D044465:White People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data