Assessing the difference in racial and ethnic disparities in access to and use of care between Traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage

Objective Test whether racial‐ethnic disparities in the access and use of care differ between Traditional Medicare (TM) and Medicare Advantage (MA). Data Source Secondary data from the 2015–2018 Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS). Study Design Measure Black‐White and Hispanic‐White disparities in access to care and use of preventive services within TM, within MA, and assess the difference‐in‐disparities between the two programs with and without controls for factors that could influence enrollment, access, and use. Data Collection/Extraction Pool 2015–2018 MCBS data and restrict to non‐Hispanic Black, non‐Hispanic White, or Hispanic respondents. Principal Findings Black enrollees have worse access to care relative to White enrollees in TM and MA, particularly for cost‐related measures such as not having problems paying medical bills (11–13 pp. lower for Black enrollees; p