HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_020893.jpg
Extracted Text (OCR)
Medicare: Enrollment Up 2x to 46 Million While Annual Payments per
Beneficiary Up 26x to $8,325 From 1966 to 2009
Real Annual Medicare Payments per Beneficiary & Enrollment, 1966 — 2009
BE mm = m= me mm mm i me me ee i eS = Ht = et 50
S ma Enrollment —— Annual Per Cap Benefits (in 2005 dollars)
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3 $2000 FETTETTT ; 10
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$0 T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T 0
1966 1970 1974 1978 1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006
KP Note: Data are inflation adjusted using BEA’s GDP price index. Source: Dept. of Health & Human Services.
BSF owe poo com USA Inc. | Income Statement Drilldown 103
Medicare: Observations
e 46 million elderly Americans (15% of population) received an average
of $8,325 in tax-payer funded payments for healthcare in 2009 ($5,079
for hospital care; $3,246 for medical insurance & prescription drugs).
e On the surface, $8,325 in free healthcare benefits every year certainly
seems like a high number — 23% of annual per-capita income —
(although working Medicare recipients do pay Medicare taxes).
e As with employer-sponsored health insurance plans, if people, in effect, get
a free benefit (with little personal financial commitment), they may not be
especially diligent and frugal about how they ‘spend’ it. The same concept
extends beyond healthcare recipients to the healthcare providers.*
e When Medicare was created in 1965 to provide health insurance to elderly
Americans, 1 in 10 Americans received Medicare, now 1 in 7 Americans receives
Medicare...above the initial ‘plan.’
Note: *The issue that people overuse services for which they do not have personal financial commitment applies to most
private insurance as well. For a more detailed discussion, see slide 293. Data are inflation adjusted using BEA’s GDP price
KP index. Source: Dept. of Health & Human Services.
a USA Inc. | Income Statement Drilldown 104
HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_020893