Researchers: Coverage Gaps Correlate With Higher Claims

Uninsured, near elderly adults with health problems end up with much higher medical costs once they become eligible for Medicare.

Researchers at Harvard University have reported that finding in a report commissioned by the Commonwealth Fund, New York, and is set to appear Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

In 1992, the researchers started looking at 5,158 adults, ages 59 to 64, who were diagnosed with high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease or stroke. The study period ended in 2004 after the study subjects became eligible for Medicare.