Asclepios
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Hang In There
January 3, 2008 • Volume 8, Issue 1New research shows that for people who were previously uninsured, turning 65 can actually improve their health because they begin receiving Medicare coverage, which kicks in on their 65th birthday.
A study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that the health of uninsured individuals between 55 and 65 years old declined more rapidly than their counterparts with health insurance. But once both groups received Medicare coverage at age 65, the disparity in health steadily diminished. For people with diabetes and cardiovascular problems in particular, the access to treatment provided through Medicare slows, and even reverses, the sharp decline in health that begins when people forgo care that they cannot afford.
Still, the years without adequate health coverage take their toll. People who had health insurance before enrolling in Medicare remain on average healthier that people who spent much of their late fifties and early sixties without coverage. Separate research shows that the previously uninsured cost Medicare more after they enroll—they are less healthy and require more care. We know also, from their own stories, that people with disabilities often go without health care during the two years they must wait after they get their first Social Security Disability check for Medicare coverage to begin.
The private insurance market does not work either for people with disabilities or for individuals in the 55 to 65 age group who do not get health insurance through their job and are also more likely to need costly care. Decent individual coverage is simply unaffordable, if it is available at all.
But holding on until Medicare coverage begins is no answer. For people in the two-year waiting period, for those waiting for Medicare coverage to begin on their 65th birthday, and for all the 47 million uninsured Americans, the answer comes in November. If we elect a president, as well as a Congress, that is committed to providing everyone in this country with the kind of guaranteed coverage provided by a public insurance program like Medicare, then our wait will soon be over. We will still have to hold their feet to the fire, but, come November, we should at least secure a promise we can hold on to.
Medical Record
“‘Our findings provide some of the strongest evidence yet that expanding health coverage to the uninsured improves their health,’ said Dr. J. Michael McWilliams, the paper’s lead author and a research associate at Harvard, particularly older people with ‘conditions like hypertension, diabetes and heart disease, for which there are effective therapies’” (“Aging: For Uninsured, Medicare Makes a Health Impact,” Nicholas Bakalar, New York Times, January 1, 2008).
“Studies show that uninsured older adults (ages 50 to 64) receive fewer basic clinical services, are more likely to experience health declines, and die at younger ages than insured adults in the same age group. When these individuals enter the Medicare program at 65, they may do so with health complications that require more costly care than if they had been insured before age 65” (“Use of Health Services by Previously Uninsured Medicare Beneficiaries,” J. Michael McWilliams, Ellen Meara, Alan Zaslavsky, and John Ayanian, Commonwealth Fund, New England Journal of Medicine, July 12, 2007).
“During this time, Jim also went without his annual check-up for the prosthesis he wore in place of his leg. He also went without the new $600 liner that the prosthesis required annually. By March 2006, Jim’s savings were nearly gone and he still was having trouble breathing. Finally, he made an appointment to see his primary care physician, who immediately sent Jim to the hospital’s emergency room due to a dangerously low hemoglobin count. Jim was hospitalized for five days and amassed a $46,000 bill that he could not pay” (“Too Sick to Work, Too Soon for Medicare: The Human Cost of the Two-Year Medicare Waiting Period for Americans with Disabilities,” Robert Hayes, Deane Beebe, and Heidi Kreamer, Medicare Rights Center, April 2007).
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Medicare Part D Monitoring Project
The Medicare Rights Center (MRC) would like to hear about your experience, or that of someone you know, enrolled in a Medicare private drug plan. With information about what the issues are with Medicare Part D, we will be able to demand that those problems be fixed.
Submit your story at http://www.medicarerights.org/partdstories.html.
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The Louder Our Voice, the Stronger Our Message
Asclepios—named for the Greek and Roman god of medicine who, acclaimed for his healing abilities, was at one point the most worshipped god in Greece—is a weekly e-newsletter designed to keep you up-to-date with Medicare program and policy issues, and advance advocacy strategies to address them. Please help build awareness of key Medicare consumer issues by forwarding this action alert to your friends and encouraging them to subscribe today.
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The Medicare Rights Center (MRC) is the largest independent source of Medicare information and assistance in the United States. Founded in 1989, MRC helps older adults and people with disabilities get good, affordable health care.
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