A Primer on Medicare

[Ken Hanly]

But medicare recipients are surely only a small portion of HMO's
business-- or perhaps I do not understand the US situation. Isn't
Medicare for the elderly in the US, and Medicaid for the poor?
There is a huge market for medical care aside from the elderly.
Probably most of the elderly would not opt for HMO's since they would
face limits etc. and HMO's are not likely to want them either since
they are expensive! So the fact that few Medicare recipients are in
HMO's is not surprising and does not allow one to derive any
conclusions about their future. Why not look at the total numbers from
the whole population in HMO's over a period of years and see if it is
increasing or decreasing and go on from there on the basis of analysing
factors that might lead to decreases or increases?

    CHeers, Ken Hanly

John K. Taber wrote:


> The Century Foundation has a useful primer on Medicare problems and
> "reform" at http://www.medicarewatch.org/
> at least, I found it helpful. It's entitled "The Basics: Medicare
> Reform."
>
> I was surprised that HMOs are small potatoes in the medical care
> business. See figure H in the primer. Enrollment of Medicare
> recipients in HMOs is:
>           >= 10%      10 States
>      2 to 10%      15 States
>      less than 2%  24 States
>
> The primer isn't sanguine about the future of HMOs.
>
> --
> John K. Taber