Medicare Beneficiaries and Their Assets: Implications for Low-Income Programs
This report, prepared by Marilyn Moon of The Urban Institute and Robert Friedland and Lee Shirey of Georgetown University's Center on an Aging Society, reviews the income and assets of the current Medicare population, provides an overview of asset tests used to determine eligibility for programs assisting low-income Medicare beneficiaries, and considers how alternative policy options would affect eligibility for these programs. The authors find that beneficiaries with low incomes tend to have minimal assets.…