Macroeconomic Effects of Medicare

Publication date: Available online 16 June 2017 Source:The Journal of the Economics of Ageing Author(s): Juan Carlos Conesa, Daniela Costa, Parisa Kamali, Timothy J. Kehoe, Vegard M. Nygard, Gajendran Raveendranathan, Akshar Saxena This paper develops an overlapping generations model to study the macroeconomic effects of an unexpected elimination of Medicare. We find that a large share of the elderly respond by substituting Medicaid for Medicare. Consequently, the government saves only 46 cents for every dollar cut in Medicare spending. We argue that a comparison of steady states is insufficient to evaluate the welfare effects of the reform. In particular, we find lower ex-ante welfare gains from eliminating Medicare when we account for the costs of transition. Lastly, we find that a majority of the current population benefits from the reform but that aggregate welfare, measured as the dollar value of the sum of wealth equivalent variations, is higher with Medicare.

Source: The Journal of the Economics of Ageing - June 17, 2017 Category: Health Management Source Type: research