Data on Insurance Reported by Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Consequences of Medicare Advantage for Beneficiaries and Politics: Revisiting the Delegated Welfare State): Insurance

2025 JUL 31 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Health Policy and Law Daily -- Research findings on Insurance are discussed in a new report. According to news reporting originating from Cambridge, Massachusetts, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “The Delegated Welfare State (Morgan and Campbell 2011) explored the causes and possible consequences of the 2003 Medicare reform boosting private managed care plans in the delivery of Medicare benefits. In this article, the authors review scholarship on beneficiary experience (access, costs, outcomes) and political feedbacks arising from the delegated governance reform to evaluate whether predictions about consumer behavior and policy entrenchment have come true.”

Our news editors obtained a quote from the research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, “They find that beneficiary experiences and satisfaction do not differ significantly between Medicare Advantage (MA) and traditional Medicare, and MA plans’ managed care techniques have cut per-beneficiary spending. But MA remains costlier to the federal government per beneficiary because of the outsized payments received by plan providers. Officials have failed to rectify these overpayments because of policy feedback effects, that is, the empowerment of lobbying groups with a stake in the program and beneficiary support for it.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Growing dependence on private plans to deliver health insurance for senior citizens, a large and politically influential constituency, has rendered government officials and elected politicians reluctant to imperil this market and the happiness of beneficiaries.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Consequences of Medicare Advantage for Beneficiaries and Politics: Revisiting the Delegated Welfare State. Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, 2025;50(4):629-657. Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law can be contacted at: Duke Univ Press, 905 W Main St, Ste 18-B, Durham, NC 27701, USA.

The news editors report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Andrea Louise Campbell, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Polit Sci, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1215/03616878-11825370. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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