Issues in Designing a Prescription Drug Benefit for Medicare
Author:
Publisher:
Published: 2002
Total Pages: 76
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKRead and Download eBook Full
Author:
Publisher:
Published: 2002
Total Pages: 76
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAuthor: Congressional Budget Congressional Budget Office
Publisher: CreateSpace
Published: 2014-11-15
Total Pages: 68
ISBN-13: 9781503231214
DOWNLOAD EBOOKOne of lawmakers' highest health-related priorities is adding a prescription drug benefit to Medicare. Although that program gives older Americans broad insurance coverage for many health needs, it provides only limited coverage of drugs not dispensed during a hospital stay. That gap in coverage has become increasingly significant as prescription drugs have assumed greater importance in the treatment of disease and as spending for outpatient prescription drugs has soared. Designing a Medicare drug benefit is a complex task, however. The competing goals for such a benefit mean that policymakers must make trade-offs (such as between broad coverage or widespread enrollment and cost). They must consider many different design elements and how those elements might interact. And they must try to avoid various problems that arise in creating such a benefit. Ultimately, the choices that designers make will affect not only the cost of the benefit but a host of other factors, such as demand for and prices of prescription drugs, spending by other federal and state programs, and how various parts of the market for health insurance operate. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has had to wrestle with those issues in recent years to produce cost estimates of the various Medicare drug proposals debated in the Congress. This study summarizes the main design choices facing policymakers and explores the implications of those choices for cost and coverage. To illustrate the effect of those choices on cost, it also discusses CBO's cost estimates for four proposals that represent a broad array of designs for a Medicare drug benefit. For the sake of simplicity, this study focuses on a standalone drug benefit-one that would be a freestanding addition to Medicare rather than part of a broad effort to restructure the program. Broad reform proposals raise important policy issues but ones that are beyond the scope of this analysis.
Author:
Publisher:
Published: 2002
Total Pages: 52
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAuthor: Joseph Antos
Publisher:
Published: 2002-11
Total Pages: 0
ISBN-13: 9780756728564
DOWNLOAD EBOOKMedicare offers broad insurance protection for many health needs of the nation's elderly & disabled residents, but it provides no coverage for the costs of most outpatient prescription drugs (PD). As spending for those PD has soared in recent years, adding a PD benefit to Medicare has become a top health issue for lawmakers. This study discusses an approach to estimating the costs of various designs for a Medicare PD benefit. Describes the broad choices available to policymakers, some problems raised by particular design choices, & the implications of those choices for the cost of four specific proposals, which together cover a wide spectrum of approaches for delivering a Medicare PD benefit. Charts & tables.
Author:
Publisher:
Published: 2002
Total Pages: 68
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKOne of lawmakers' highest health-related priorities is adding a prescription drug benefit to Medicare. Although that program gives older Americans broad insurance coverage for many health needs, it provides only limited coverage of drugs not dispensed during a hospital stay. That gap in coverage has become increasingly significant as prescription drugs have assumed greater importance in the treatment of disease and as spending for outpatient prescription drugs has soared. Designing a Medicare drug benefit is a complex task, however. The competing goals for such a benefit mean that policymakers must make trade-offs (such as between broad coverage or widespread enrollment and cost). They must consider many different design elements and how those elements might interact. And they must try to avoid various problems that arise in creating such a benefit. Ultimately, the choices that designers make will affect not only the cost of the benefit but a host of other factors, such as demand for and prices of prescription drugs, spending by other federal and state programs, and how various parts of the market for health insurance operate.
Author:
Publisher:
Published: 2002
Total Pages:
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAuthor: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Energy and Commerce. Subcommittee on Health
Publisher:
Published: 2003
Total Pages: 80
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAuthor: United States. Congressional Budget Office
Publisher:
Published: 2002*
Total Pages:
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAuthor: United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Finance
Publisher:
Published: 2005
Total Pages: 322
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAuthor: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Ways and Means
Publisher:
Published: 2007
Total Pages: 168
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOK