Medical
expenses similar for seniors
of different ethnic groups
according to
study
July
5, 2003 - Black, white and Hispanic seniors who receive Medicare spend
similar amounts on medical care each year, according to a new study in
the Milbank Quarterly.
The
small differences that exist "mainly reflect differences in medical
need," according to José J. Escarce, M.D., Ph.D., and Kanika Kapur,
Ph.D., of the RAND Health Program.
"Our
study offers evidence that racial and ethnic differences in medical care
expenditures among older persons in the United States are small if they
exist at all," Escarce and Kapur say.
The
study concludes that black and Hispanic seniors spend greater amounts of
public funds, such as Medicare or Medicaid coverage, on items like
prescription medications and home health care. But when socioeconomic
status is taken into account as well, the racial and ethnic gap in
public expenditures narrows.
This
suggests "that public sources of payment for medical care play a
crucial role in muting racial and ethnic differences in medical care
expenditures among seniors," the researchers say.
Escarce
and Kapur analyzed medical care expenses incurred by 4,870 Medicare
patients ages 65 and older from 1996 to 1998. While comparing expenses
between white, black and Hispanic patients, they determined the degree
to which expenditures reflected medical need as well as differences in
socioeconomic status and health insurance.
In
all cases, there were no significant differences in overall expenses
related to race or ethnicity, say the researchers.
Escarce
and Kapur also found that white seniors were much more likely than black
or Hispanic seniors to consider themselves to be in good health. White
seniors were also more likely to have private supplemental insurance and
to spend more private insurance or out-of-pocket money on medical care.
The
researchers suggest that recent policy changes, including public
coverage's availability to more low-income seniors and equalization of
physicians' payments for treating patients with private and public
supplementary insurance, may help minimize the relationship between
socioeconomic status and medical care among Medicare patients.