Volume 10, Number 3 (Summer) 1975
Davis, Karen, and Roger Reynolds. 1975. "Medicare and the Utilization of Health Care Services by the Elderly." Journal of Human Resources 10(3):361-377.
Payments per enrolled Medicare beneficiary are much higher for high income elderly persons than for low income elderly persons. Payments are also much higher for elderly whites than for elderly blacks, particularly in the South. To determine whether these differences reflect differences in health status, educational levels, physical access to health care services, the financial deterrent of Medicare cost-sharing requirements, or other factors, this study analyzes physician and hospital utilization patterns of the elderly using 1969 data from the Health Interview Survey conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics.
The authors are, respectively, Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and graduate student, Department of Economics, University of Chicago. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the officers, trustees, or other staff members of the Brookings Institution. Financial support for this study was provided by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
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