While data limitations from the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey make direct comparisons between HMOs and traditional Medicare spending misleading, it is still important to examine the out of pocket spending in HMOs. This paper looked at patient characteristics including health status, age and income differences in out of pocket costs. Just as with the traditional Medicare program, out of pocket costs are considerably higher for those in poor or fair health. Thus, even though costs for beneficiaries are likely to be lower overall, the same types of patterns with sicker beneficiaries paying more occur. Another finding was that while HMOs offer drug coverage, beneficiaries still pay a considerable amount out of pocket. (Published by The Commonwealth Fund; 2000 July.)
The nonpartisan Urban Institute publishes studies, reports, and books on timely topics worthy of public consideration. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders.
Usage, posting and reprint of materials on the UI web site:
Most publications may be downloaded free of charge from the web site in PDF format. This information may be used and copies made for research, academic, policy or other non-commercial purposes. Proper attribution is required.
Copyright of the written materials contained within the Urban Institute website is owned or controlled by the Urban Institute. Posting UI research papers on other websites is permitted subject to prior approval from the Urban Institute—contact paffairs@urban.org.
If you are unable to access or print the PDF document please contact us or call the Publications Office at (202) 261-5687.
Browse by Topic:
