Cost-Related Problems Are Less Common Among Beneficiaries in Traditional Medicare Than in Medicare Advantage, Mainly Due to Supplemental Coverage

KFF June 25, 2021
Jeannie Fuglesten Biniek, Nancy Ochieng, Juliette Cubanski, Tricia Neuman

In recent years, the share of Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in Medicare Advantage, the private health plan alternative to the traditional Medicare program, has grown substantially. In 2021, 42% of all Medicare beneficiaries were enrolled in Medicare Advantage, up from 24% a decade earlier, with higher enrollment among some subgroups of beneficiaries than others. In 2018, half of all Black and Hispanic beneficiaries were enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan, compared to 36% of White beneficiaries.

Given these shifts in enrollment and broader concerns about health inequities among Medicare beneficiaries, this analysis builds on our prior work examining rates of health care cost-related problems among Medicare beneficiaries, taking a closer look at cost-related problems among beneficiaries in traditional Medicare, including those...

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