Center for Social Innovation

For decades, Americans have squabbled over whether the government should expand Medicare, maintain its current scope, or cut it altogether. But their debates have suffered for lack of an answer to one vital question: Does Medicare make a difference?

A new study shows that Medicare indeed makes a difference for seriously ill patients—and that difference is the one between life and death. Following the fates of more than 400,000 people admitted to California hospitals through their emergency departments, a team of economists finds that patients who are just over 65 years old—and thus eligible for Medicare—are 20 percent less likely to die within a week of admission than are their slightly younger counterparts who do not yet qualify for the government insurance.

“Until this paper, no one ... Read more