Medicaid and the elderly

Abstract

The brief's key findings are: (1) Medicaid covers not only the low-income elderly but also those with higher incomes who become impoverished by health costs, such as nursing home care. (2) The percentage of high-income single retirees receiving Medicaid rises with age – from near zero for those in their 70s to 20 percent for those in their late 90s. (3) Even higher-income retirees who never receive Medicaid benefit from the insurance value that it provides, which allows them to maintain smaller reserves. (4) The analysis suggests that single retirees of all incomes value current Medicaid benefits at more than their cost but an expansion at less than its cost.