Prescription Drug Coverage for Medicare Beneficiaries

A Side-by-Side Comparison of Selected Proposals as of February 15, 2000

This document provides a side-by-side comparison of five major federal proposals that have been considered to provide outpatient prescription drug coverage to Medicare beneficiaries. It begins with a summary table comparing key features of each proposal, followed by a detailed comparison of the following major proposals: Breaux/Frist, Clinton, Kennedy/Stark, Snowe/Pallone, and Bilirakis/Peterson.

For more background on the issue of prescription drugs for Medicare beneficiaries, see the Kaiser Family Foundation Fact Sheet, Medicare and Prescription Drugs (document number 1583).