Medicare Advantage Outperforms Traditional Medicare on Cost Protections for Low- and Modest-Income Populations

This fact sheet uses 2017 Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS) data to examine how Medicare coverage affects beneficiaries’ access to care, utilization of benefits, and OOP costs. Findings show that Medicare Advantage serves a higher proportion of low- and modest-income beneficiaries and that Medicare Advantage beneficiaries report $1,598 less in total health spending than their Traditional Fee-for-Service Medicare Counterparts.