What's in the administration's 5-part plan for Medicare Part D and what would it mean for beneficiaries and program savings?
- Collection:
- Health Policy and Services Research
- Series Title(s):
- Issue brief (Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation)
- Author(s):
- Cubanski, Juliette, author
- Contributor(s):
- Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, issuing body.
- Publication:
- San Francisco, CA : Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, June 2018
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- Cost Savings Medicare Part D -- economics Budgets Cost Sharing Federal Government Medicare Part D -- organization & administration Humans United States
- Genre(s):
- Technical Report
- Abstract:
- Today more than 43 million older adults and people with disabilities have prescription drug coverage under Medicare Part D. Part D helps people with Medicare afford their medications by subsidizing the purchase of drug coverage from private stand-alone prescription drug plans (PDPs) and Medicare Advantage drug plans (MA-PDs), and offering additional financial help to people with low-incomes. Although premiums for Part D plans have been stable in recent years, cost-sharing requirements for drugs covered by plans have increased over time. While there have been changes to the benefit since it took effect in 2006 to enhance financial protections--in particular, phasing out the coverage gap--Part D coverage does not fully protect beneficiaries from high drug costs because the benefit does not have an annual cap on out-of-pocket spending. Enrollees who do not receive low-income subsidies are required to pay 5 percent of their total drug costs above the catastrophic coverage threshold. Against this backdrop, and with rising concern over increases in prescription drug costs, the Trump Administration has proposed what it calls a "5-part plan" that would change several features of the Part D drug benefit. These proposals were included in the Administration's FY2019 budget proposal and referenced in the Administration's May 2018 blueprint on drug costs. (The budget and the blueprint included other proposals related to Medicare Part B drug reimbursement, including shifting coverage for some Part B drugs to Part D, and proposals related to Medicaid. Those proposals are not discussed here.) This brief describes the Administration's five Part D proposals and discusses the potential implications for people with Part D prescription drug coverage and program spending, based on estimates from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
- Copyright:
- Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further use of the material is subject to CC BY license. (More information)
- Extent:
- 1 online resource (1 PDF file (6 pages)).
- NLM Unique ID:
- 101740280 (See catalog record)
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101740280