Historical Support for A Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit
Historically, Medicare has not provided coverage for outpatient prescription drugs. Given the important role prescription drugs play in health care, and the rising costs associated with them, different proposals to add a drug benefit to Medicare have been proposed in the past. The most recent - the Medicare Modernization Act – passed in 2003 and created Medicare Part D, an outpatient prescription drug benefit set to go into effect in January 2006. (For more information on the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit, please visit http://www.kff.org/medicare/rxdrugdebate.cfm).
In the period leading up to passage of this law, there was overwhelming support for the addition of a prescription drug benefit to Medicare(http://www.kff.org/healthpollreport/apr_2005/1.cfm), and this support was consistent despite the cost of adding such coverage (http://www.kff.org/healthpollreport/apr_2005/2.cfm).
Seniors’ Views on the New Prescription Drug Benefit
Seniors' views of the new prescription drug benefit are mixed. Between February 2004 and December 2004, around four to five in ten seniors have said they have an unfavorable impression of the new law, compared with about two to three in ten who said they have a favorable impression. In April 2005, more seniors still say they have an unfavorable impression (34%) than a favorable impression (21%) of the new prescription drug benefit, but nearly half have a neutral impression or don’t know (45%) (http://www.kff.org/healthpollreport/apr_2005/3.cfm).
Seniors are also more likely than their younger counterparts to have an unfavorable impression (34% versus 24% of adults 18-64) of the benefit. Despite their somewhat negative view, in November 2004, seniors overwhelmingly said that lawmakers in Washington should fix the problems with the law (70%) as opposed to repealing it (12%) (http://www.kff.org/healthpollreport/apr_2005/6.cfm).
Overall, seniors expect the new benefit will be at least somewhat helpful for people on Medicare. More than half (57%) say it will be helpful for a typical person on Medicare, and larger shares say the benefit will be helpful for people on Medicare with no drug coverage (71%) and low-income people (70%). On the other hand, seniors are less sure the drug benefit will help them personally: 37% say it will be helpful and 44% say it will not be helpful to them personally (http://www.kff.org/healthpollreport/apr_2005/7.cfm).
With 7 months to go before seniors begin deciding whether to enroll in a Medicare drug plan, there are gaps in seniors’ understanding of the benefit. About two-thirds (68%) say that they do not have a good understanding of the new benefit (http://www.kff.org/healthpollreport/apr_2005/9.cfm) and that they do not have enough information to understand how the benefit will impact them personally (66%) (http://www.kff.org/healthpollreport/apr_2005/8.cfm).
For help in making this decision, seniors are more likely to say they would turn to their doctor (49%) or pharmacist (33%) than to Medicare information sources (23%) (http://www.kff.org/healthpollreport/apr_2005/10.cfm). However, more than half of seniors (53%) are aware of Medicare’s information hotline 1-800-MEDICARE and more than one-third (36%) of seniors have heard of the Medicare website - Medicare.gov (http://www.kff.org/healthpollreport/apr_2005/11.cfm).
At this point, few seniors say they are planning to enroll in a new drug plan: less than one in ten (9%) say they will enroll, while nearly four in ten (37%) say they will not. The majority of seniors say they either haven’t heard enough to decide (47%) or don’t know (7%) whether they will enroll in 2006 (http://www.kff.org/healthpollreport/apr_2005/12.cfm).
Other Government Policies To Reduce Prescription Drug Costs
Besides the new prescription drug benefit, there continues to be strong support for other government policies that aim to lower prescription drug prices. A majority (77%) of the public supports the ideas of Congress allowing Americans to buy prescription drugs imported from Canada, and allowing the federal government to negotiate with drug companies for lower prices on prescription drugs for people on Medicare (http://www.kff.org/healthpollreport/apr_2005/13.cfm). Behind such strong support is the belief that these policies would lower drug costs – nearly eight in ten (79%) adults believe each policy would reduce drugs costs in the U.S. “a lot” or “some” (http://www.kff.org/healthpollreport/apr_2005/15.cfm).
The argument that these policies will lead drug companies to do less research and development does not resonate with most Americans: seven in ten (70%) do not believe importing drugs from Canada would impact research and 57% don’t think government price negotiation would lead to less research and development of drugs. (http://www.kff.org/healthpollreport/apr_2005/13.cfm).
For more information on the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit, please visit: http://www.kff.org/medicare/rxdrugdebate.cfm
