title: Estimating the cost of a Medicare outpatient prescription drug benefit.
abstract: People enrolled in Medicare account for more than one-third of all outpatient prescription drug expenditures in the United States. That being the case, a proposed prescription drug benefit under the Medicare program would insure a substantial part of the market and would create the largest expansion of the program in the past 20 years. This article explains how the cost of a drug benefit was estimated as part of the Clinton Administration's health reform initiative.
authors.affiliation: Office of the Actuary, Health Care Financing Administration.
authors.forename: D R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Waldo
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000553:Ambulatory Care / Q000191:economics*; D006233:Persons with Disabilities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016527:Drug Costs / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011307:Drug Prescriptions / Q000191:economics*; D017048:Health Care Costs / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D018166:Health Care Reform; D006801:Humans; D007356:Insurance, Pharmaceutical Services / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006278:Medicare / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D018803:Models, Economic; D010045:Outpatients / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014481:United States