New Veterans Health Research from University of California Irvine Discussed (How Does Medicare Eligibility Affect Choice And Utilization?: Evidence From Veterans): Veterans Health

2025 JAN 29 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Health Policy and Law Daily -- Investigators discuss new findings in veterans health. According to news reporting originating from Irvine, California, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “Health insurance streamlines access to care, thereby improving well-being and health.”

The news correspondents obtained a quote from the research from University of California Irvine: “In efforts to control costs, health insurers use selective contracting to limit the size of their provider networks. Regulators have focused on network adequacy rules, given concerns that overly restrictive networks may impede appropriate access. This raises an important question about what happens to patient behavior if a network expanded. We examine the effects of network expansions by focusing on veterans who receive care from the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). We exploit the change in their insurance network induced by Medicare eligibility at age 65 to examine changes in inpatient health care behaviors. Using regression discontinuity methods, we find that hospitalizations increase by approximately 3 percent at 65.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “Interestingly, there are large insurer reallocations - individuals increasingly choose the new Medicare option for hospitalizations once it is available (a 70 percent increase relative to the pre-65 share.) while the VHA and commercial insurers are used increasingly less, with an approximately 7 and 51 percent decline, compared to the pre-65 share, respectively. We also find larger reallocations toward Medicare for certain groups, particularly among individuals who live closest to a Medicare hospital and further from VHA hospitals, and among those who visit the hospital for elective medical procedures (e.g., knee replacement). The results show the link between network size and cost containment, with expansions resulting in greater use of elective inpatient care.”

For more information on this research see: How Does Medicare Eligibility Affect Choice And Utilization?: Evidence From Veterans. Innovation in Aging, 2024,8(Supplement_1). (Innovation in Aging - https://academic.oup.com/innovateage). The publisher for Innovation in Aging is Oxford University Press (OUP).

A free version of this journal article is available at https://doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igae098.2456.

Our news editors report that more information may be obtained by contacting Marion Aouad, University of California Irvine, Irvine, California, United States. Additional authors for this research include Liam Rose, Todd Wagner.

(Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world.)