Medicare Makes the Uninsured Healthier

A recent survey of over five thousand Americans who carry health insurance and 2,227 who were either completely or partly uninsured between the ages of 55 and 64 has shown that when people age into the MediCare system, those benefits help them become healthier.

The survey was spearheaded by J. Michael McWilliams, MD, of Harvard University and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, who, with colleagues, rated the general health, change in health, agility, mobility, pain levels and symptoms of depression of all the participants in the study. Also collected was data about participants with diabetes and heart disease.

What they found was that people without health insurance get progressively sicker than people who are insured, until they reach the age of 65, and become eligible for MediCare, at which point they stop losing ground, though are not likely to become as spry and healthy as people who had health insurance their entire lives, and saw doctors on a regular basis. /p>

For people who are diabetic or have heart disease, this is especially important information.

McWilliams and his colleagues concluded that, “Providing earlier health insurance coverage for uninsured adults, particularly those with cardiovascular disease or diabetes, may have considerable social and economic value for the United States by improving health outcomes.”