Medicare Drug Benefit
Medicare beneficiaries who were enrolled in full-year prescription drug coverage were significantly more likely to use medication than those with no coverage, a study in Health Services Research found.
Using data from 1999, researchers reported that healthy Medicare beneficiaries were much less likely to have prescription drug coverage than those with common chronic conditions or those with high predicted Medicare spending.
The authors concluded that selection of prescription drug coverage can be predicted based on observable health characteristics but cautioned that additional research is needed to determine whether such findings hold true after the launch of the Medicare drug benefit (Shea et al., Health Services Research, June 2007).