Report: Medicare Advantage Members Spend Less on Health Care Than Other Seniors

July 3

Seniors enrolled in Medicare Advantage spend thousands less on annual health care costs than their fee-for-service (FFS) Medicare counterparts — and the spending gap is growing.

That’s according to a new report from ATI Advisory commissioned by the Better Medicare Alliance (BMA), a research and lobbying organization that advocates for MA. Researchers analyzed 2019 to 2021 Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey and Cost Supplement files from CMS and found that MA members were less likely to experience health-related cost burdens and spent less on health care out of pocket. That’s despite the fact that MA beneficiaries are more likely to have lower incomes than their FFS counterparts. In 2021, more than half (52%) of MA members had incomes below 200% of the federal poverty line (FPL) vs. 33% of FFS beneficiaries.

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Radar on Medicare Advantage

Carina Belles

Carina has been covering public-sector health care since 2018. As a data reporter for Radar on Medicare Advantage, she creates infographics and data stories on issues impacting Medicare, Medicaid and Part D. She also develops AIS Health Daily, a free daily newsletter that showcases AIS’s strong reporting across our four publications and parent company Norstella’s suite of market access and data solutions. Prior to joining the editorial team, she managed Medicare and Medicaid data for the Directory of Health Plans, AIS’s industry-standard health coverage database. She graduated from Ohio University with a B.S. in Journalism.