TY - JOUR AU - Polsky,Daniel AU - Doshi,Jalpa A. AU - Escarce,Jose AU - Manning,Willard AU - Paddock,Susan M. AU - Cen,Liyi AU - Rogowski,Jeannette TI - The Health Effects of Medicare for the Near-Elderly Uninsured JF - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series VL - No. 12511 PY - 2006 Y2 - September 2006 UR - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12511 L1 - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12511.pdf N1 - Author contact info: Daniel Polsky University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine Division of General Internal Medicine 423 Guardian Drive, Blockley Hall, Rm 1212 Philadelphia, PA 19104 E-Mail: polsky@mail.med.upenn.edu Jalpa A.. Doshi Division of General Internal Medicine 423 Guardian Dr., Blockley Hall, Rm 1222 Philadelphia, PA 19104 E-Mail: jdoshi@mail.med.upenn.edu Jose Escarce UCLA Med-GIM-HSR 911 Broxton Avenue Box 951736 Los Angeles, CA 90024 Tel: 310/794-3842 Fax: 310/794-0732 E-Mail: jescarce@mednet.ucla.edu Willard G. Manning University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy Studies 1155 East 60th Street, Room 176 Chicago, IL 60637 E-Mail: w-manning@uchicago.edu Susan M. Paddock RAND Corporation 1776 Main Street Santa Monica, CA 90407-2138 E-Mail: paddock@rand.org Liyi Cen Division of General Internal Medicine 423 Guardian Drive, Blockley Hall, Room 1215 Philadelphia, PA 19104 E-Mail: liyicen@mail.med.upenn.edu Jeannette A. Rogowski UMDNJ - School of Public Health Department of Health Systems and Policy 683 Hoes Lane West, Room 332 Piscataway, NJ 08854 Tel: 732/235-9759 Fax: 732/235-4004 E-Mail: rogowsje@umdnj.edu AB - We study how the trajectory of health for the near-elderly uninsured changes upon enrolling into Medicare at the age of 65. We find that Medicare increases the probability of the previously uninsured having excellent or very good health, decreases their probability of being in good health, and has no discernable effects at lower health levels. Surprisingly, we found Medicare had a similar effect on health for the previously insured. This suggests that Medicare helps the relatively healthy 65 year olds, but does little for those who are already in declining health once they reach the age of 65. The improvement in health between the uninsured and insured were not statistically different from each other. The stability of insurance coverage afforded by Medicare may be the source of the health benefit suggesting that universal coverage at other ages may have similar health effects. ER -