MCBS Highlights: Measuring the Health Status of Medicare Beneficiaries: 1995

The Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS) is a powerful tool for analyzing the Medicare population. Based upon a stratified random sample, we can derive information about the health care use, expenditure, and financing of Medicare's 36 million enrollees. We can also learn about those enrollees' health status, living arrangements, and access to and satisfaction with care. In the charts that follow we present findings on the health status and functional limitations of beneficiaries who were enrolled in Medicare on January 1, 1995. Survey respondents were asked "In general, compared to other people your age, would you say that your health is... excellent, very good, fair, or poor?" Responses to this question, although it asks for a judgement rather than an objective fact, have been found to be predictive of objective health status, health behaviors, and even mortality (Adler, 1994). Additionally, the MCBS collects two well-documented measures of physical functioning (Weiner and Hanley, 1989). The first, activities of daily living (ADLs), includes such basic activities as bathing or showering, dressing, eating, getting in or out of bed or chairs, walking, or using the toilet. The second scale, instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs), concerns using the telephone, light housework, heavy housework, preparing meals, shopping, and managing money.