A Profile of Older Americans: 2004

Special Topic: Health Insurance Coverage

In 2003, almost all (96%) non-institutionalized persons 65+ were covered by Medicare. Medicare covers mostly acute care services and requires beneficiaries to pay part of the cost, leaving about half of health spending to be covered by other sources. About 61% had some type of private health insurance. Over 6.4% had military-based health insurance and 9% of the non-institutionalized elderly were covered by Medicaid. Less than 1% did not have coverage of some kind. Over 87% of non-institutionalized Medicare beneficiaries in 2002 had some type of supplementary coverage. However, among Medicare beneficiaries residing in nursing homes, almost 58% were covered by Medicaid in 2001.

Figure 9:

Figure 9 shows the Health Insurance Coverage of Persons 65 and older in 2003. All types of coverage is 99.2. Total private is 61.0 with 35.2 Employment-based and 28. as direct purchase. Total Government is 96.2 with 96.0 Medicare, 9.2 Medicaid and 6.4 Military. 0.8 are not covered.

Note: Figure 9 data is for the non-institutionalized elderly. A person can be represented in more than one category.

(Source: "Income, Poverty, and health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2003," P60‑226, issued August, 2003, based on data from Current Population Survey, Annual Social and Economic Supplement , Bureau of the Census. Medicare beneficiary data is from the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey)

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Last Modified: 11/22/2010 11:36:11 AM