Are Medicaid and Medicare Patients Treated Equally?

Calvin Ackley (), Abe Dunn, Eli Liebman and Adam Shapiro
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Calvin Ackley: https://www.bea.gov/research/meet-the-researchers/calvin-ackley

No 2024-14, Working Paper Series from Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco

Abstract: We examine whether Medicaid recipients receive the same health care services as those on Medicare. We track the services provided to the same individual as they age into Medicare from Medicaid at age 65. Cost sharing remains negligible across the insurance switch, implying that changes in care utilization reflects supply-side factors. Utilization increases by about 20 percent upon switching to Medicare. We find that 60 to 90 percent of the increase in office visits is explained by physicians averse to accepting Medicaid patients. This analysis provides new evidence that Medicaid’s smaller provider network plays a large role in limiting utilization.

Keywords: Medicaid; Medicare; health care; health insurance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I13 I14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 82
Date: 2025-03-25
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea
Note: Original publication date: 2024-04-17.
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DOI: 10.24148/wp2024-14

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