More older Americans than ever pick Medicare Advantage for their health coverage. Medicare Advantage is an option within Medicare that provides the same benefits as traditional Medicare, but includes additional services and coverage like prescription drugs, vision, hearing, dental, and wellness care. The number of beneficiaries who in 2016 chose Medicare Advantage because of its better services, better care, and better value totaled more than 17 million nationwide.
Medicare Advantage is a program that offers affordable, high-quality coverage to all seniors. In fact, new data from the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS), which is produced by the Centers for Medicaid & Medicare Services (CMS), showed that Medicare Advantage plans continued to be a vital source of coverage for low-income beneficiaries and diverse populations in 2016—the most recent year available currently. Download our key findings below.