“Study: Medicare reduces older adults’ risk for catastrophic health expenses”

Study: Medicare reduces older adults’ risk for catastrophic health expenses,” by Brian P. Dunleavy, UPI

 

 

Quote:

“Older adults’ out-of-pocket healthcare expenses drop by 27% once they enroll in Medicare, improving their protection from financial risk, a study published Friday by JAMA Health Forum found. … And although nearly 9% of adults age 64 experienced ‘catastrophic’ health expenses — or costs exceeding 40% of annual income minus spending on food and housing — enrolling in Medicare, usually at age 65, reduced their risk for these financial problems by 35%, the researchers said.”

 

 

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

Another kernel of evidence proving the frequent assertion that widespread swaths of the elderly spend down into impoverishment because of health and long-term care expenses is untrue. Medicare and Medicaid have largely eliminated that risk and the concern people used to have about it. So, what happens when Medicare and Medicaid, as well as Social Security (the income from which buttresses both of those health programs), fall away and people are left to their own devices? I expect we’ll find out in the next decade or so.