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This Medicare Part D data spotlight analyzes the premiums charged by the 1,824 stand-alone Medicare Part D plans that will be offered in markets across the country in 2008. The analysis finds premiums charged for Part D plans range widely, from $9.80 per month to $107.50 per month. The average monthly premium would increase from $27.39 in 2007 to $31.99 if enrollees remain in their current plans next year – a 17 percent increase. Nearly…
This Medicare Part D data spotlight examines the coverage gap, or “doughnut hole,” in Medicare drug plans available in 2008. Part D enrollees (other than those receiving low-income subsidies) will reach the coverage gap after they incur $2,510 in total drug costs in 2008. At that point, enrollees are required to pay 100 percent of drug costs until they qualify for catastrophic coverage. The analysis finds that in 2008, more than a quarter of stand-alone…
This document provides the detailed toplines from a USA Today/Kaiser/Harvard survey examining Americans’ views on, and experiences with, prescription drugs and the pharmaceutical industry, including drug costs, advertisements, safety issues, government regulation and medical research. Toplines (.pdf)
On March 23, 2010, President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law. The health reform law, as modified by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 which passed the House of Representatives on March 21, 2010 and is under consideration in the Senate, makes several key changes to the Medicare Part D drug benefit to reduce Part D enrollees’ out-of-pocket liability when they reach the coverage gap, known as…
This fall a new rule takes effect requiring all private health plans to offer a uniform, simple to read, summary of benefits and coverage (SBC). The SBC will provide consumers with standardized information about how plans cover essential health benefits and what coverage limits and cost sharing applies. The SBC is one of the most popular provisions of the ACA. Consumers often find health insurance difficult to understand and would no doubt welcome a plainly written…
Prescription Drug Coverage Among Medicare Beneficiaries in 2013 Download Source 2013 Annual Report of the Boards of Trustees of the Federal Hospital Insurance and Federal Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Funds.
In this column for The Wall Street Journal's Think Tank, Drew Altman explores the data behind public concern about prescription drug costs and highlights that the people most in need are the most burdened by the problem.
In response to rising drug costs, some policymakers and presidential candidates, including Republican Donald Trump and Democrats Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, have proposed allowing Medicare to negotiate directly with pharmaceutical companies over the price of prescription drugs, in contrast to the current approach under Medicare Part D drug where private plans do the negotiating. A version of this proposal was also included in the Obama Administration’s FY 2016 and FY 2017 budgets. While the…
In an article in Health Affairs, KFF's Juliette Cubanski, Sarah True and Tricia Neuman, and several other co-authors, explore how often brand-name drugs receive favorable formulary inclusion relative to generics in the Medicare Part D program's prescription drug plans.
Potential changes in mail service delivery could be a concern for people who receive prescription drugs from mail-order pharmacies. To understand who may be most affected by delays in the delivery of prescription drugs, we analyzed use of mail order in Medicare Part D and large group employer plans, and identified the therapeutic classes and specific drugs with the highest volume of fills by mail-order pharmacies in each market.
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