Medicare Part D and the financial protection of the elderly
- Collection:
- Health Policy and Services Research
- Series Title(s):
- Center for Retirement Research working paper
- Contributor(s):
- Engelhardt, Gary V. Gruber, Jonathan. Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.
- Publication:
- Chestnut Hill, MA : Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, c2009
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- Financing, Personal Health Expenditures Insurance, Pharmaceutical Services -- economics Medicare Part D -- economics Aged Drug Utilization Economic Competition Insurance Coverage -- statistics & numerical data Private Sector Public Sector Risk Humans United States
- Genre(s):
- Technical Report
- Abstract:
- We examine the impact of the expansion of public prescription prescription-drug insurance coverage from Medicare Part D has had on the elderly and find evidence of substantial crowd-out. Using detailed data from the 2002-6 waves of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), we estimate that the extension of Part D benefits resulted in 75% crowd-out of prescription drug insurance coverage and 33%-50% crowd-out of prescription drug expenditures of those 65 and older. Part D is associated with relatively small reductions in out-of-pocket spending. This suggests that the welfare gain from protecting the elderly from out-of-pocket spending risk through Part D has been small.
- Copyright:
- Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further use of the material is subject to CC BY license. (More information)
- Extent:
- 44 p.
- Illustrations:
- Illustrations
- NLM Unique ID:
- 101519291 (See catalog record)
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101519291