Content area
Full Text
This DataView presents descriptive information on beneficiaries with disabilities in Medicare and Medicaid. Medicare data show that persons with disabilities have more functional limitations, poorer health status, lower incomes, and experience more barriers to health care than aged Medicare beneficiaries. Medicaid data reveal that significant growth in the Medicaid disabled population has led to the disabled outnumbering the Medicaid-eligible elderly. Additionally, Medicaid serves an increasingly younger disabled population and more persons with mental impairments.
INTRODUCTION
Both Medicare and Medicaid serve large and diverse populations of persons with disabilities. In this Data View, we present descriptive information on Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries with disabilities. The data come from several HCFA sources-including the most recent data available from the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey1 and Medicare and Medicaid enrollment and claims data. Data from the Social Security Administration on persons receiving disability income payments-the majority of Medicare's and Medicaid's disabled enrollees-also were used.
Medicare data show that persons with disabilities are a vulnerable population, having more functional limitations, poorer health status, lower incomes, and experiencing more barriers to health care than do the elderly in Medicare.
The Medicaid data reveal a number of trends that have emerged in recent years. There has been significant growth in the Medicaid disabled population. Persons with disabilities now outnumber the elderly in Medicaid....