title: Medicare beneficiaries and drug coverage.
abstract: Whether or not to add a prescription drug benefit to the basic Medicare package is at the forefront of congressional debate. Using data from the 1996 Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS), we examine changes in drug insurance coverage levels from 1995 to 1996 and compare drug use and spending data for Medicare beneficiaries with and without drug coverage. The data show the enrollees without drug insurance consistently use fewer prescriptions, spend more out of pocket, and have less in total drug expenditures than their insured peers.
authors.affiliation: Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), Office of Strategic Planning, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Poisal
authors.forename: G S
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Chulis
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D011307:Drug Prescriptions / Q000191:economics*; D004363:Drug Utilization / Q000191:economics* / Q000639:trends; D005260:Female; D005382:Financing, Personal / Q000191:economics* / Q000639:trends; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D005102:Health Expenditures / Q000706:statistics & numerical data* / Q000639:trends; D006291:Health Policy; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D019458:Insurance Coverage / Q000191:economics* / Q000639:trends; D008297:Male; D017057:Medically Uninsured / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006278:Medicare / Q000191:economics* / Q000639:trends; D008875:Middle Aged; D011057:Politics; D011203:Poverty / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014481:United States