Receiving Medicare coverage at age 65 years gives more people access to care, but it doesn’t necessarily help more people receive diagnoses for chronic diseases when they age into the program, according to a study published Wednesday in The American Journal of Managed Care.
Investigators used data from the 2007-2019 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, which included 43,620 people between the ages of 59 and 71. The team focused on 19 chronic conditions.
Being eligible for Medicare improved people having any health coverage by 8.8%, or Medicare coverage by 78.1%, specifically. But the coverage didn’t show much change in terms of being diagnosed with a chronic disease at 65. That is, there weren’t significant changes in the diagnoses of 17 chronic conditions; any changes were minor. The small changes were noted in being diagnosed with stroke and cancer.
The results were consistent with previous research that found only small changes in diagnoses of chronic conditions among people newly enrolled in Medicare, the authors said.
One reason for the lack of big changes in being diagnosed once a person ages into Medicare may be explained by the adults already having coverage when they turn 65. People may have received preventative care and been diagnosed before going onto Medicare, the study found.
“These findings suggest that Medicare may have a significant role in detecting and managing chronic conditions over the long term,” the authors wrote.
The news comes as a recent report found that people who have a stroke may have a higher risk for developing dementia. The risk for dementia was the highest in the first year post-stroke and stayed high in the subsequent 20 years. The risk of dementia was highest in the first year after stroke, with almost a three times higher risk. That risk went down to a 1.5 times risk five years after stroke and stayed elevated up to 20 years later, the investigators found.
