Title Information
Title
Estimating the Cost of an Out-of-Pocket Maximum in Traditional Medicare
Type of Resource (primo)
technical_reports
Abstract
Traditional Medicare’s (TM) lack of an out-of-pocket maximum, a feature of Medicare Advantage plans, means that OOP costs can accumulate rapidly for beneficiaries without supplemental coverage. To increase affordability for TM beneficiaries, Congress could establish an out-of-pocket maximum. We used data from the 2022 CMS Master Beneficiary Summary File and performed a simple analysis of the share of non-dual TM beneficiary spending over various OOP caps of Parts A and B spending. The analysis assumed no impact of the cap on beneficiaries’ choice of supplemental plans and assumed no impact on utilization patterns. From this analysis, we estimate that a $1,000 out-of-pocket cap on Parts A and B spending would benefit 44% of non-dual TM beneficiaries and cost $44 billion in 2025, whereas a $10,000 cap would benefit 3.1% of beneficiaries and cost $8 billion. An out-of-pocket maximum on Part A and B spending greater than $4,000, would benefit less than 10% of qualified beneficiaries and cost between $8-19 billion in 2025. While our analysis gives a ballpark estimate of the costs of OOP caps for Parts A and B, a more detailed analysis should account for likely behavioral effects of OOP caps on beneficiaries’ plan choice or utilization patterns.
Name
Name Part
Meehir Dixit
Role
Role Term (marcrelator) (authorityURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators", valueURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/aut")
Author
Name
Name Part
David Meyers
Role
Role Term (marcrelator) (authorityURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators", valueURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/aut")
Author
Name
Name Part
Andrew Ryan
Role
Role Term (marcrelator) (authorityURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators", valueURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/aut")
Author
Origin Information
Date Created
2024
Subject (Local)
Topic
Traditional Medicare
Subject (Local)
Topic
Original Medicare
Subject (Local)
Topic
Out-of-Pocket Maximum
Genre
Policy Brief
Access Condition: use and reproduction
All rights reserved
Access Condition: rights statement (href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/")
In Copyright
Access Condition: restriction on access
All Rights Reserved
Identifier: DOI
10.26300/kb5e-n559