Medicare (United States) - Demographics

Demographics

The Medicare population differs in significant ways from the general population. Compared to the rest of Americans, Medicare enrollees are disproportionately white and female (due to women’s greater longevity). They also have a comparatively precarious economic situation:

• Based on the last comprehensive study of the Medicare population, which occurred in 2006, the average household income of Medicare enrollees was $22,600 compared to a U.S. median income of $48,201. In 2008, 16% of Medicare enrollees were living in poverty, compared to 13% of the general population.
• The typical senior household has $66,900 in savings, while studies suggest that the average man needs $124,000 to cover health care during retirement, while the average woman needs $152,000.
• Medicare covers 75% of the cost of covered services on average and 48% of average costs for all medical services, and the typical enrollee faces over $3,000, while 10% of enrollees have over $8,300 in out-of-pocket costs. Women have slightly higher costs on average - $3,236 compared to $3,103, and older enrollees have substantially higher costs.

Medicare enrollees also have substantial health care needs compared to the general population.

• A substantial majority of Medicare enrollees – roughly 87% have at least one chronic condition, and nearly half have three or more, compared to 21% and 7% of the general population, respectively. 47% of Medicare enrollees have some kind of activity limitation.
• 30% of enrollees visit the emergency room in a given year, 21% have an inpatient stay.
• Roughly two-thirds of seniors require some form of long-term care over their lifetimes, and 18% are enrolled in a nursing home for at least a year.
• Medicare enrollees also have high incidence of cognitive impairment (31%), and on average, seniors have lower health literacy than other age groups (29% have below basic health literacy, while among all other age groups, no more than 13% have below basic literacy). This means that nearly a third of seniors lack the basic skills needed to “obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions.”