That annoying clicking sound you hear from your nearby pickleball courts is not just the paddles hitting the plastic balls. It’s twisting knees and cracking hips. A report from UBS, reported in the Financial Times, estimates medical costs of $250 million to $500 million “directly attributable to pickleball and see potential for greater medical costs indirectly linked to pickleball.”
UBS believes 85% of this cost accrues to Medicare. UnitedHealth’s CFO, speaking at a Goldman Sachs conference, said outpatient care to Medicare patients is increasing. Procedures such as work on hips, knees, and cardio.
The CFO pointed out “We have insight into other areas, for example, our ambulatory surgery practices that we own and operate, [we’re] seeing very strong volumes . . . So that has continued to be quite strong actually in terms of the care — at the levels of care activity that seniors are getting.”
UBS continued, “... we estimate that pickleball contributes 3-6 bps [basis points] of annual Medicare medical costs. By care setting, we see about 6 bps of medical costs in the outpatient setting and 2 bps of medical costs in the inpatient setting. While this may seem trivial, it’s plausible that pickleball medical costs are driving 5-10 percent of the unexpected medical cost trend this year.”
Pickleball is no longer just an elitist sport. But, according to Axios, it’s popular in the Hamptons and “all the rage in Hollywood.”
Craig Coyne writes in Vanity Fair, “Leonardo DiCaprio plays every day ... George Clooney says his wife, Amal, routinely torches him on their home court in L.A. ... ‘Survivor’ winner Tyson Apostol has parlayed his reality-TV fame into a career as a pickleball influencer ... [2021’s] Sun Valley Conference, also known as the ‘summer camp for billionaires,’ featured pickleball.”
Coyne lets the sport have it in his 2021 piece, “remember that pickleball is just a goofy-sounding game featuring (usually yellow) plastic balls and (usually ugly) composite paddles on a hard surface roughly a third the size of a tennis court.“
Despite the goofiness, “The boom appears surprisingly democratic, as pickleball gains popularity across the socioeconomic spectrum, “Coyne wrote. “You can find courts at Carmel Valley Ranch outside Big Sur, California, and at La Casa mobile home park in North Port, Florida. How, at a time when America’s rich and poor experience increasingly distinct realities, can anything hover above the political fray?”
Meanwhile, Medicare, despite the threat of more Pickleballers, recently had its go-broke date pushed back to 2031. Healthcaredive.com reports, “That could be in part because some of the sickest Americans died due to the [COVID-19] virus, trustees said. In addition, pricey hip and knee replacements are increasingly taking place in less expensive outpatient settings.”
Medicare is in a pickle, but pickleball is the least of its problems.
