“Medicare Beneficiaries’ Financial Security Before the Coronavirus Pandemic,” by Wyatt Koma, et al., Kaiser Family Foundation

Quote:

“This analysis looks at the income, assets and home equity of Medicare beneficiaries prior to coronavirus outbreak, using data from the Dynamic Simulation of Income Model (DYNASIM) for 2019 (See Methodology for details). We look at the overall population and variations by age, gender, and race/ethnicity. Because the analysis is based on information available prior to the pandemic, the estimates do not reflect the impact that the coronavirus economy has had, or will have, on Medicare beneficiaries’ income and savings.

Key Findings

Even before the effects of the coronavirus pandemic are fully realized, our analysis finds many Medicare beneficiaries lived on limited incomes and modest, if any, savings, with wide disparities by age, gender and race/ethnicity.”

LTC Comment (from Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform):

This annual analysis of Medicare beneficiaries’ financial condition focuses on how poor the bottom half are. It completely ignores how rich the top half are. We emphasized the latter point in Medicaid and Long-Term Care observing that the vast majority of the upper half of Medicare beneficiaries in terms of income and assets would qualify for Medicaid long-term care benefits without spending down savings appreciably. Not so poor after all, but about to become much more so thanks to the Coronavirus. See the section titled “Median Wealth” in Medicaid and Long-Term Care for the full analysis.