
In 2017, an estimated 69.5 percent of all MA beneficiaries were White, 13.8 percent were Hispanic, 9.9 percent were Black, 4.3 percent were Asians or Pacific Islanders (API), 2.1 percent were multiracial (not included in this report), and 0.4 percent were American Indians or Alaska Natives (AI/AN), compared with 76.1 percent, 8.5 percent, 8.9 percent, 3.6 percent, 2.3 percent, and 0.6 percent, respectively, in the general Medicare population.
Full Answer
Does Medicare cover racial disparities in health care?
Racial, Ethnic, and Gender Disparities in Health Care in Medicare Advantage April 2019 Racial, Ethnic, and Gender Disparities in Health Care in Medicare Advantage
How does minority health care differ across racial and ethnic groups?
In the first set, quality of care for racial and ethnic minority groups is compared with quality of care for Whites. In the second, quality of care for women is compared with quality of care for men.
What percentage of Medicare beneficiaries are Hispanic?
In 2019, nine percent - or around 5.06 million - of all Medicare beneficiaries in the United States were Hispanic. This statistic depicts the distribution of Medicare beneficiaries in 2019, by ethnicity. Already a member? Add this content to your personal favorites. These can be accessed from the favorites menu in the main navigation.
Are there gender disparities in health care in Medicare Advantage?
Gender Disparities in Health Care in Medicare Advantage Disparities in Care: All Patient Experience and Clinical Care Measures Number of patient experience measures (out of 7) and clinical care measures (out of 29) for which women received care that was worse than, similar to, or better than the care

What race uses Medicare the most?
In 2019, nine percent - or around 5.06 million - of all Medicare beneficiaries in the United States were Hispanic....Distribution of Medicare beneficiaries in 2019, by ethnicity.EthnicityPercentage of total Medicare beneficiariesWhite74.8%Black10.4%Hispanic9%3 more rows•Jun 20, 2022
What is the demographic for Medicare?
o The majority (83%) of Medicare beneficiaries are ages 65 and older, while 17 percent are under age 65 and qualify for Medicare because of a permanent disability. However, a much larger share of black (31%) and Hispanic beneficiaries (23%) than white beneficiaries (14%) are under age 65 and living with disabilities.
What ethnicity uses Medicaid the most?
WhitesAn estimated 47.3% of Whites, 40.0% of African Americans, and 30.0% of Native Americans met new eligibility criteria for Medicaid, compared with 81.1% of Asian Americans, 57.0% of Latinos, and 55.1% of individuals of more than 1 race.
How many blacks are on Medicare?
There are approximately 44 million African Americans in the United States, accounting for approximately 13.4 percent of the total population. 5.8 million Medicare beneficiaries are African American, 10 percent of all beneficiaries.
Who is Medicare through?
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is the federal agency that runs Medicare. The program is funded in part by Social Security and Medicare taxes you pay on your income, in part through premiums that people with Medicare pay, and in part by the federal budget.
What state has the most Medicare recipients?
CaliforniaIn 2020, California reported some 6.41 million Medicare beneficiaries and therefore was the U.S. state with the highest number of beneficiaries....Top 10 U.S. states based on number of Medicare beneficiaries in 2020.CharacteristicNumber of Medicare beneficiariesCalifornia6,411,106Florida4,680,1378 more rows•Jun 20, 2022
Do minorities have less access to healthcare?
Minority Americans Have Lower Rates of Insurance Coverage and Less Access to Care Lack of health insurance is linked to less access to care and more negative care experiences for all Americans. Hispanics and African Americans are most at risk of being uninsured.
How many minorities have no health insurance?
In 2021, the national average was 11.4 percent. White Americans had a below average rate of just 7.5 percent, whereas 11.8 percent of Black Americans had no health insurance.
Which of the following ethnic groups is least likely to have health insurance?
As of 2019, nonelderly AIAN, Hispanic, NHOPI, and Black people remained more likely to lack health insurance than their White counterparts (Figure 2). The higher uninsured rates among these groups largely reflects more limited rates of private coverage among these groups.
What percentage of black Americans do not have health insurance?
12 percentKey findings from the report include: Since the implementation of the ACA's coverage provisions, the uninsured rate among Black Americans under age 65 decreased by 8 percentage points, from 20 percent in 2011 (approximately 7.1 million people) to 12 percent in 2019 (approximately 4.4 million people).
What percentage of population has Medicare Advantage?
In 2021, more than 26 million people are enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan, accounting for 42 percent of the total Medicare population, and $343 billion (or 46%) of total federal Medicare spending (net of premiums).
What does Schip stand for?
State Children's Health Insurance Program.
Do people of color have more hospital visits than white people?
Among Medicare beneficiaries, people of color are more likely to report being in relatively poor health, have higher prevalence rates of some chronic conditions, such as hypertension and diabetes than White beneficiaries; they are also less likely to have one or more doctor visit, but have higher rates of hospital admissions and emergency department visits than White beneficiaries.
Do black people get Medicare?
While the vast majority of Medicare beneficiaries across all racial and ethnic groups have some source of supplemental coverage to help fill in Medicare’s benefit gaps and cost- sharing requirements, the share of beneficiaries with different types of coverage varies by race and ethnicity. A smaller share of Black and Hispanic Medicare beneficiaries than White beneficiaries have private supplemental coverage through Medigap or retiree health plans, while a larger share have wrap-around coverage under Medicaid; a larger share of Black and Hispanic than White beneficiaries are enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans
How much would Medicare save if health disparities were eliminated?
[4] In a report issued in September, 2009, the Urban Institute calculated that the Medicare program would save $15.6 billion per year if health disparities were eliminated. The study examined a select set of preventable diseases among the Latino and African American communities, including diabetes, hypertension and stroke, and concluded that – if the prevalence of such diseases in the African American and Latino communities were reduced to the same prevalence as those diseases occur in the non-Latino white population – $23.9 billion in health care costs would be saved in 2009 alone. [5]
What percentage of Hispanics are not able to afford health care in Rhode Island?
While 31 percent of Hispanics and 22 percent of Native Americans in Rhode Island reported not being able to afford seeing a health care provider during this period, 12 percent of Caucasians reported the same information. [16] .
Why is reducing racial disparities important?
Reducing Racial and Ethnic Health Care Disparities Is Essential for Better Health Care Outcomes and for Lowering Health Care Costs
What is the National Hispanic Medical Association?
The National Hispanic Medical Association (NHMA) provides resources to advocates and providers in order to strengthen health care delivery to Hispanic communities. Here is a link for providers: http://www.nhmamd.org/index.php/resources-for-physicians (site visited June 10, 2015).
What are health disparities?
The term "health disparities" is often defined as "a difference in which disadvantaged social groups such as the poor, racial/ethnic minorities, women and other groups who have persistently experienced social disadvantage or discrimination systematically experience worse health or greater health risks than more advantaged social groups." [2] When this term is applied to certain ethnic and racial social groups, it describes the increased presence and severity of certain diseases, poorer health outcomes, and greater difficulty in obtaining healthcare services for these races and ethnicities. When systemic barriers to good health are avoidable yet still remain, they are often referred to as "health inequities." [3]
Which is more likely to die from cancer: African American or Caucasian?
At the national level, African American men , for instance, are more likely to die from cancer than Caucasian men. [6] While Caucasian women are more likely to develop breast cancer than African-American women, the latter are more likely to die from this particular form of cancer than Caucasian women. [7] While Caucasian men are more likely to develop colorectal cancer than African-American men, the latter are more likely to die from this cancer than the former. [8] On the other hand, African-American men are more likely than Caucasian men to develop prostate cancer. [9] The underlying causes of these disparities are socio-economic policies, health access issues among African-Americans which Caucasian persons are less likely to encounter, as well as a lack of health education.
What is the CDC's website for nutrition?
If you live in a food desert, the CDC provides helpful information concerning nutrition so that a buyer can make the best out of a trip to a distant grocery store: http://www.cdc.gov/nutrition/everyone/index.html (site visited June 16, 2015).
Which group received worse care than Whites?
Racial and ethnic disparities were more variable for the clinical care measures than for the patient experience measures (see figure on p. x). API beneficiar ies received worse clinical care than Whites for 3 measures but received care of similar quality for 16 measures and better quality for 14 measures. Black beneficiaries received worse clinical care than Whites for 14 measures but received care of similar quality for 16 measures and better quality for 3 measures. Hispanic beneficiaries received worse clinical
Which group of women was more likely to have been screened for breast cancer?
Asian or Pacific Islander, Black, and Hispanic women were more likely than White women to have been appropriately screened for breast cancer. The difference between each of these groups of women and White women was greater than 3 percentage points.
Which is more likely to have fractures in Asian or Pacific Islander women?
Asian or Pacific Islander and Hispanic women who suffered a fracture were more likely than White women who suffered a fracture to have had either a bone mineral density test or a prescription for a drug to treat osteoporosis. The difference
Should high risk medications be avoided in the elderly?
Long-term use of high-risk medication should be avoided in the elderly. In the 2017 data, it was observed that this standard of care was met less often for women than for men. The difference between women and men was greater than 3 percentage points.
What are the factors that contribute to the racial and ethnic differences in health care?
One factor that needs to be more consistently taken into account in studying racial and ethnic differences is the role of geography or residential area . Access to high-quality care varies considerably by area—by state, between rural and urban areas, as well as across smaller communities (Waidmann and Rajan, 2000; Wennberg and Cooper, 1999). Since racial and ethnic groups are unevenly distributed across communities, geographic variation in health care has the potential to explain some health care differences. For instance, states with large proportions of blacks tend to provide less appropriate treatment to all myocardial infarction patients, whether black or not, than states with smaller proportions of blacks (Chandra and Skinner, 2004).
What is the relationship between geographic variation and racial and ethnic differences in health care?
The relationship between geographic variation and racial and ethnic differences in health care is complex. Some geographic variation may be due to racial factors related to residential segregation by race. But some variation in care is clearly not geographic, as when variations exist within geographic areas.
Why was Medicare created?
In 1965, the Medicare program was established to reduce financial barriers to hospital and physician services for persons aged 65 and older. To participate in this program, hospitals had to comply with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which requires that no one be excluded from federal benefits based on race, color, or national origin. This requirement played a large role in desegregating hospitals (Quadagno, 2000).
How do stereotypes affect patient care?
These beliefs might be based on generalizations from clinical experience (Satel, 2000Satel, 2001-2002), or a provider may also select treatments based on stereotypical assumptions about patient behavior. Some research tackles this latter possibility. A national sample of AIDS care physicians predicted that, among hypothetical patients, black men would be less likely to adhere to antiretroviral therapy—a generalization that may be right for some therapies but not others (see below). Since potential adherence to therapy is a factor in decisions to start treatment, the inference might be drawn that black men would be less likely to receive such care , but this potential effect of stereotypes was not actually demonstrated (Bogart et al., 2001). Somewhat similarly, van Ryn et al. (1999; cited in van Ryn and Fu, 2003) found that physicians rated black patients, in comparison with white patients, as more likely to be lacking in social support and less likely to participate in cardiac rehabilitation. The likelihood of such participation is a factor in recommending revascularization, but the researchers did not link any difference in recommendations to the stereotype.
How are stereotypes affected in medical decisions?
Whether medical decisions are actually affected by stereotypes is therefore not known. It would be useful to determine how often stereotypes are activated, in what circumstances, and what medical decisions are indeed affected. In principle, stereotypes would not be a problem if treatment decisions were entirely individualized (as suggested earlier, in the genetics section, as a long-term goal). However, negative stereotypes could still make the provider-patient interaction uncomfortable, which could hamper such individualization by restricting the full exchange of information. Such processes may well be important in particular individual cases but their overall contribution to less appropriate care for minorities, or to explaining racial and ethnic differences in health in later life, remains uncertain.
Why are there differences in medical care?
Some differences in medical care may be due to stereotypes of different groups held by health care providers. The authors of Unequal Treatment(Institute of Medicine, 2002) argue that unconscious or unthinking discrimination based on negative stereotypes, even in the absence of conscious prejudice, may contribute to systematic bias in care.
Does Medicare cover dental care?
The limitations of Medicare create economic challenges for blacks and Hispanics. Medicare does not cover such medical needs as prescription drugs, dental care, and long-term care, and it imposes various out-of-pocket medical expenses: an annual deductible for some care, copayments on physician charges, and payment for one day of inpatient care. These expenses may represent a substantial burden for low-income older adults, and minorities are more affected because of lower household incomes. In 1996, two-thirds of white Medicare beneficiaries had incomes of less than $25,000; 90 percent of black and Hispanic beneficiaries had incomes this low (Gornick, 2000). Other data show that black and Hispanic older adults have higher rates of poverty than their white counterparts, as do Asians and American Indians and Alaska Natives (Williams and Wilson, 2001).
