The share of seniors without drug coverage dropped significantly under Medicare’s Part D drug benefit, according to a Health Affairs web exclusive article based on a survey of more than 16,000 seniors. Seniors with drug coverage from any source were less likely to face high monthly drug costs or to skip prescribed medications because of cost than were seniors who remained without drug coverage. However, seniors who enrolled in a Medicare Part D plan did not fare as well as those who relied on other sources of drug coverage, such as employer-sponsored coverage or benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
Among the key findings, only 8.5 percent of seniors lacked drug coverage in 2006--compared with about 33 percent of seniors without drug coverage in 2005, before Medicare Part D was enacted. However, 20 percent of seniors in a Part D plan reported that they had not filled, or delayed filling, a prescription due to costs during the past 12 months. Part D enrollees had slightly lower rates of cost-related skipping than seniors without any drug coverage (23 percent), and substantially higher rates than seniors getting prescriptions from an employer plan (8 percent) or the VA (12 percent). Read the abstract.
