In 2003, the median senior living alone spent 12.5 percent of his or her income on out-of-pocket health care, more than five times the 2.2 percent share spent by the median younger adult living alone, according to a new analysis issued by the Kaiser Family Foundation. The analysis uses data from the Consumer Expenditures Survey from 1998 to 2003 to assess the share of income that seniors and younger adults spent out of pocket for their healthcare needs.
The issue brief, The Burden of Out-of-Pocket Health Spending Among Older Versus Younger Adults, finds that seniors consistently spent a larger share of their income out of pocket on health care than younger people. Given the persistent differences between young and old, the analysis suggests that even with Medicare’s prescription drug benefit, significantly narrowing the wide gap between seniors and younger adults in their out-of-pocket spending burdens is unlikely. Access the issue brief.
