Study Reports Gender Disparity in Medicare

According to the recent report "Women's Health in the Greater Houston Area," women comprise 56 percent of all Medicare recipients. Some findings in the report:

• Older women have 14 percent more visits to physicians than men, 18 percent more prescriptions and 60 percent more frequent use of home-care services.

• Women account for two to six times more nursing-home days.

• Medicare distributes 12 percent more of its payments per beneficiary per year to men even though women with Medicare are, on average, older than their male counterparts.

• Women are about half as likely as men to have pension-based health insurance policies.

• Women account for seven of 10 Medicare beneficiaries living in poverty.

- From Texas Woman's University-Houston Center and The Greater Houston Women's Foundation

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©2006 Texas Medical Center

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