Three decades of health care use by the elderly, 1965-1998.
Over the past three decades health spending and hospital use increased more for the elderly than for persons under age sixty-five. Medicare spending for the oldest old (age eighty-five and older) increased faster than for persons ages sixty-five to seventy-four, but that increase was due entirely to greater postacute care use. Health care trends are consistent with the idea that Medicare has improved the health of the elderly. Greater spending increases for the elderly may reflect legislative developments such as the passage of Medicare and its continued fee-for-service nature and the failure to pass universal coverage, as well as changes in the health care delivery system such as the rapid growth in managed care enrollment among persons under age sixty-five.
Lubitz
J
J
Greenberg
L G
LG
Gorina
Y
Y
Wartzman
L
L
Gibson
D
D
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D014487:Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, U.S.; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D005102:Health Expenditures / Q000706:statistics & numerical data* / Q000639:trends*; D006299:Health Services for the Aged / Q000145:classification / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D006278:Medicare / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008875:Middle Aged; D014481:United States