Drugs, Medical Devices, and Pharmacy Services

Report to the President: Prescription Drug Coverage, Spending, Utilization, and Prices.. Growth in Drug Spending for the Total Population

The nation’s spending for prescription drugs has grown dramatically in recent years. Table 2-29 shows estimated total national health expenditures and prescription drug expenditures for selected years from 1965 through 1998, along with HCFA(now known as CMS)’s projections to 2008. All numbers are in nominal dollars and thus reflect general inf

Report to the President: Prescription Drug Coverage, Spending, Utilization, and Prices.. Trends in Prescription Drug Spending

Prescription drug spending and utilization have become increasingly important issues in part because of their rapid growth. Spending on prescription drugs has risen faster than spending on other types of health care throughout the 1990’s. This section explores growth in spending for the total population and for Medicare beneficiaries. It will al

Report to the President: Prescription Drug Coverage, Spending, Utilization, and Prices.. Mix of Drugs

Another consequence of not having drug coverage may be the use of a different mix of drugs. In addition to not filling some prescriptions, some people without drug coverage may obtain different prescriptions compared to the prescriptions that people with drug coverage get. Preliminary analysis of MCBS data on Medicare beneficiary utilization of me

Report to the President: Prescription Drug Coverage, Spending, Utilization, and Prices.. Access to Needed Drugs

Because out-of-pocket spending for prescription drugs can take up a significant share of spending, some people may not be able to buy all of the medications they need. Data from the 1997 National Health Interview Survey confirm that, both among Medicare beneficiaries and in the total population, people without coverage are going without medication

Report to the President: Prescription Drug Coverage, Spending, Utilization, and Prices.. Out-of-pocket Drug Spending and Other Health Spending

Spending for drugs is a substantial component of total out-of-pocket health spending for all ages and income levels. The following tables and charts were prepared using the Consumer Expenditure Survey (CEX) data prepared by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This analysis differs in several respects from others reported in this chapter. Expenditures

Report to the President: Prescription Drug Coverage, Spending, Utilization, and Prices.. Out-Of-pocket Drug Spending and Income

This report has shown that, while people without drug coverage have lower total drug spending than those with coverage, they incur higher out-of-pocket costs. Tables 2-20 through 2-23 show this out-of-pocket spending as a share of income for covered and noncovered Medicare beneficiaries, in the total population and in the 20% with the highest spen

Report to the President: Prescription Drug Coverage, Spending, Utilization, and Prices.. Consequences of Lack of Drug Coverage

There are several ways to explore the burden that drug spending places on Medicare beneficiaries without coverage as compared to those who do have coverage: drug spending as a proportion of income, drug spending as a proportion of other spending, self-reported problems in affording drugs, and self-reported differences in the mix of drugs used. The

Report to the President: Prescription Drug Coverage, Spending, Utilization, and Prices.. Moral Hazard and Barriers to Access

The RAND Health Insurance Experiment of the late 1970’s and early 1980’s found that even in the absence of adverse selection, insurance can lead to higher rates of use. 18 In the experiment, higher cost-sharing deterred people from obtaining both necessary and unnecessary care. 19 Several studies focusing on drug use by Medicare beneficiarie

Report to the President: Prescription Drug Coverage, Spending, Utilization, and Prices.. Adverse Selection

People without Medicare may decide whether or not to obtain health insurance, and anticipated need is certainly a factor in this choice. However, most non-Medicare individuals do not make a separate decision about whether to obtain coverage specifically for prescription drugs. The vast majority who have insurance are covered through employer plans

Report to the President: Prescription Drug Coverage, Spending, Utilization, and Prices.. Explaining Utilization and Spending Differences

There are a number of reasons why people with prescription drug coverage might have higher utilization and spending than people without coverage:

Report to the President: Prescription Drug Coverage, Spending, Utilization, and Prices.. Distribution of Spending

Table 2-14 and Figure 2-10 show the distribution of spending by beneficiaries with and without drug coverage in 1996. Only 4 percent of Medicare beneficiaries accounted for almost a quarter of all beneficiaries’ drug spending in 1996, and the top third of beneficiaries spent three-fourths of the total spent on drugs. The distribution of spending

Report to the President: Prescription Drug Coverage, Spending, Utilization, and Prices.. Race

Table 2-13 shows spending by covered and noncovered beneficiaries by race. Among Medicare beneficiaries, average spending by people with coverage is slightly higher for whites than for blacks or people of other races, but the difference in spending for the covered and the noncovered is slightly greater for nonwhites. However, these differences are

Report to the President: Prescription Drug Coverage, Spending, Utilization, and Prices.. Age

Table 2-12 and Figure 2-9 show data on spending for prescription drugs by age. There is a notable difference between elderly and non-elderly Medicare beneficiaries. Non-elderly Medicare beneficiaries qualify for the program on the basis of disability or end stage renal disease, and thus may be more likely to need prescription drugs. The spending g

Report to the President: Prescription Drug Coverage, Spending, Utilization, and Prices.. Non-Medicare Population

To put drug coverage for Medicare beneficiaries in perspective, Table 1-13 and Figure 11-6 show sources of drug coverage for the non-Medicare population in 1996. 46 Nearly one in four people had no drug coverage during the year. Figure 1-6. Sources of Drug Coverage for Non-Medicare Population, 1996

Report to the President: Prescription Drug Coverage, Spending, Utilization, and Prices.. Health status and other health indicators

Not surprisingly, as health status worsens, beneficiaries use more drugs. However, Table 2-7 and Figure 2-7 show that while utilization rises, a gap remains between beneficiaries with and without coverage. Within each health status category, beneficiaries with coverage are more likely to fill at least one prescription, and fill more prescriptions

Report to the President: Prescription Drug Coverage, Spending, Utilization, and Prices.. Income

Table 2-5 and Figure 2-6 show average prescription drug spending and average out-of-pocket spending for Medicare beneficiaries by income. 8 Average spending for people with coverage is consistently higher than for people without coverage across income groups. 9 It might be expected that spending differences would diminish steadily with higher in

Report to the President: Prescription Drug Coverage, Spending, Utilization, and Prices.. Source of Coverage

Table 2-4 and Figure 2-5 show that utilization and spending by Medicare beneficiaries varies according to their primary source of supplemental coverage. 5 The gaps between beneficiaries with and without drug coverage also vary.

Report to the President: Prescription Drug Coverage, Spending, Utilization, and Prices.. Duration of coverage

Table 2-3, drawn from an independent analysis of MCBS data by Bruce Stuart et al. for the Commonwealth Fund, shows differences in utilization and spending for Medicare beneficiaries who had drug coverage throughout 1996, during part of the year, or at no time during the year. It has been observed for other types of medical coverage that people wit

Report to the President: Prescription Drug Coverage, Spending, Utilization, and Prices.. Overall differences

Table 2-1, drawn from 1996 MCBS data, compares drug utilization and spending for Medicare beneficiaries with and without drug coverage. As in the previous chapter, beneficiaries are included in the covered category if they had drug coverage at any point during the year. The next section of this chapter will explore the differences in spending and

Report to the President: Prescription Drug Coverage, Spending, Utilization, and Prices.. Comparisons of Utilization and Spending

This section will present, for Medicare beneficiaries and for the non-Medicare population, comparisons of utilization by covered and noncovered people grouped by various demographic and health characteristics. Unless otherwise noted, all results reported in this chapter are statistically significant at the 0.05 level, based on a two-tailed test. S

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