Why Many Medicare Beneficiaries Cling to an Allegedly Worse Deal

Under the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003, Congress granted private Medicare Advantage health plans more money per Medicare beneficiary than it granted traditional, government-run Medicare. In other words, the per beneficiary cost paid by the US taxpayers was hi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:JAMA : the journal of the American Medical Association 2016-07, Vol.316 (3), p.257-258
Main Author: Reinhardt, Uwe E
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aged
Choice Behavior
Decision Making
Health insurance
Humans
Insurance, Health
Medicare
Medicare - economics
Medicare Part C - economics
Private Sector
Trust
United States
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Summary:Under the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003, Congress granted private Medicare Advantage health plans more money per Medicare beneficiary than it granted traditional, government-run Medicare. In other words, the per beneficiary cost paid by the US taxpayers was higher for those enrolled in the private plans than for those enrolled under the traditional government-run Medicare program. Here, Reinhardt examines why Medicare beneficiaries still prefer the "worse" deal, traditional, government-run Medicare.
ISSN:0098-7484
1538-3598
DOI:10.1001/jama.2016.8355