Medicare Beneficiaries Strongly Satisfied with Coverage in 2019

In 2019, Medicare beneficiaries who were living in the community were in good health and reported satisfaction with their Medicare coverage, including Medicare costs, quality of care, and access to care, according to the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey’s (MCBS) preliminary report.

The report pulled data from a CMS survey of Medicare beneficiaries who were living in the community—in other words, not living in a long-term care facility. It presents an early depiction of the state of the Medicare population before the coronavirus pandemic struck the US.

The population was composed primarily of white, non-Hispanic beneficiaries (74.9 percent). The study’s demographics racially and ethnically were similar to the overall Medicare beneficiary population’s demographics at the time.

The majority of respondents were between 65 and 85 years of age (76.4 percent), with 14 percent of the population reporting that they were less than 65 years old and 9.3 percent stating that they were over 85 years old. A little less than one in five beneficiaries were veterans (18.5 percent).

“The MCBS is the most comprehensive and complete survey available on the Medicare population and is essential in capturing data not otherwise collected through operations and administration of the Medicare program,” the report explained.

More than nine in ten Medicare beneficiaries said that they were satisfied with their care overall and the same percentage reported being satisfied with their access to care. Less than eight percent of the respondents stated that they had trouble receiving care.

The Medicare population living in their communities also reported positive health outcomes overall.

More than three-quarters of all Medicare beneficiary participants (77 percent) stated that they were in good, very good, or excellent health. For most beneficiaries, their health status was about the same as the previous year (62 percent). Less than half of the respondents had one or more disabilities (48 percent).

Still, some did face health challenges. Over a quarter of the population had two or more disabilities and more than one in five beneficiaries had a single disability.

Aside from disabilities, the most common activities that seniors encountered extreme difficulty in executing were walking or climbing the stairs, hearing, and performing cognitive functions related to concentration, memory, or decision-making. Slightly more than 16 percent had trouble doing errands.

With the majority of this population claiming to be in good, very good, or excellent health, one might expect healthcare spending to be more manageable for this group of beneficiaries. The data overall confirmed this expectation.

Eight in ten beneficiaries in the survey reported that they were satisfied with their out-of-pocket healthcare spending. Approximately 16 percent of beneficiaries were dissatisfied with healthcare costs.

Nearly 10 percent of respondents stated that they had delayed care due to costs (9.6 percent), but the remaining 90 percent of respondents did not put off care for the sake of potential cost savings.

Notably, however, this data covered one specific subset of the Medicare population—individuals who were not living in long-term care facilities. This is an important distinction because long-term care facility expenses made up 32 percent—or nearly one-third—of out-of-pocket healthcare spending for Medicare beneficiaries in 2016.

Plus, at the time most long-term care service users were ages 65 or older, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Thus, it makes sense that in the MCBS report that age group was one of the smallest represented among those living in the community.

The older that beneficiaries get, the greater their costs may grow. They may be more susceptible to expensive chronic diseases on top of long-term care costs.

Low-income and minority seniors are particularly vulnerable to high healthcare spending, according to a separate study conducted by Commonwealth Fund.

Despite these challenges, Medicare beneficiaries who are living in their communities reported satisfaction and strong health under Medicare in the year prior to the coronavirus pandemic.