Racial and Ethnic Differences in Public and Private Medical Care Expenditures among Aged Medicare Beneficiaries

The lower access to and use of medical care among black Americans, compared with white Americans, have concerned researchers and policymakers for many years. Similarly, several studies suggest that Hispanic Americans face greater barriers to access and use medical care less often than whites do. These racial and ethnic disparities in care are attracting more attention as policymakers and health care providers struggle both to understand the sources of the disparities and to eliminate them, as exemplified in a recent Institute of Medicine (2002) review of the evidence regarding disparities. Our study, outlined in this article, examined the current differences in medical care expenditures by non‐Hispanic white, non‐Hispanic black, and Hispanic seniors who were Medicare beneficiaries. Racial and ethnic differences in medical care are significant when they occur among seniors because seniors are more apt to have chronic diseases and may be particularly vulnerable to the harm caused by impaired access to care.