How Medicare Increases Access to Care for Seniors

Before Medicare, access to care for many seniors was difficult and prevented them from accessing care. After medicare the percentage of 66 year olds who had issues getting access to care was split in half with 46% fewer seniors avoiding care in fear of healthcare costs. 

A recent study in Health Affairs shows that Medicare increases seniors’ access to care and reduces the barriers of affordability. (Waddill, 2021) The study examined data from 2008- 2017, looking at the use of healthcare of 64 year olds, before Medicare eligibility, and 66 year olds who are eligible. Once enrolled in Medicare, those who experienced barriers in accessing care before Medicare dropped by 50% after being enrolled in Medicare. 

Some other significant findings are among those who said they couldn’t access care because of costs before Medicare dropped 40% after enrollment in Medicare. The trend in America is that people who report barriers to care drops as people get older, specifically because of programs like Medicare. (Waddill, 2021) Even though health often declines as we get older and we often need more care, the research found that seniors enrolled in Medicare did not experience significant barriers to getting the care they need. Access to care for seniors without a college degree also improved with Medicare access. This builds on research around poor health outcomes for less educated people. 

Interestingly, the Affordable Care Act did not significantly affect the reports on access to care among seniors. This could be attributed to Medicare covering seniors’ needs. 

The trend of insurance plans covering more aspects of seniors' care such as prescription costs, transportation, fitness, nutrition and more will only continue to reduce barriers to care and increase positive health outcomes for seniors. The more we understand about how programs like Medicare can improve health outcomes for Americans, the more policy makers can use this information to create good policy. 

In that vein, this supports Biden’s call to reduce the eligibility age for Medicare, as more seniors would be able to access affordable quality care. The researcher Paul Jacobs (2020) who conducted this study states in his findings, “These results suggest that incremental Medicare expansions could have positive access and affordability benefits for enrollees compared with the insurance options available to them before they turn sixty-five.”

Source: https://healthpayerintelligence.com/news/medicare-increases-access-to-care-affordability-for-seniors

Study mentioned: https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/abs/10.1377/hlthaff.2020.00940#:~:text=I%20found%20that%20Medicare%20eligibility,care%20because%20of%20the%20cost.