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10/15/2003 | Important Considerations for Medicare Beneficiaries in Drug Bills
Dominating the discussions have been the benefit's costs and provisions, as well as the degree to which the legislation would shift Medicare toward privatization to provide drug coverage. In four new Commonwealth Fund Policy Briefs, noted health policy analysts Marilyn Moon and Cristina Boccuti offer an opportunity to consider how these issues would affect Medicare beneficiaries.
Source: Commonwealth Fund
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9/5/2003 | Low-Income Medicare Beneficiaries: How the House and Senate Prescription Drug Bills Address Their Drug Needs
The House and Senate versions of a Medicare prescription
drug bill treat the drug costs of those dually-eligible for Medicare and Medicaid
and other low-income Medicare beneficiaries quite differently. The Kaiser Commission
on Medicaid and the Uninsured cosponsored a policy briefing on the key issues in the
two bills that would impact low-income beneficiaries and released a brief and background
report on the topic.
Source: Kaiser Family Foundation
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9/03/03 | Kaiser Family Foundation/ Harvard School of Public Health Medicare Prescription Drug Survey
A new survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard School of
Public Health examines public opinion on the current Medicare prescription drug debate.
The survey, a follow-up to a broader, more comprehensive survey released in June 2003
about the Medicare program and proposed changes, finds that a majority of seniors want
Congress to pass Medicare prescription drug legislation this year, but most worry that
they will still pay too much for drugs even if Congress acts.
A Chartpack, the Survey and Toplines,
updated Kaiser Health Poll Report on Medicare Prescription Drugs are all available.
Source: Kaiser Family Foundation
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8/18/03 | Caught in Between: Prescription Drug Coverage of Medicare Beneficiaries Near Poverty
According to this analysis by Dennis G. Shea of Pennsylvania State University and Bruce C. Stuart and Becky Briesacher of the University of Maryland,
many elderly and disabled Medicare beneficiaries with very modest
incomes would see little benefit from prescription drug legislation pending in Congress. The report finds
that a couple living at only 160 percent of the poverty level in 2006
($20,944) would still pay a substantial part of their income on
prescription medications--11.6 percent, or $2,437--under the
current House bill. Under the Senate bill, this couple would
spend 15.3 percent of their income, or $3,208.
Source: Commonwealth Fund
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8/12/03 | Prescription Drug Coverage for Medicare Beneficiaries: A Side-by-Side
Comparison of Selected Proposals
This document, prepared by Health Policy Alternatives, Inc., provides a detailed side-by-side comparison of the
prescription drug provisions of the House and Senate Medicare proposals,
as passed on June 27, 2003. Along with these provisions, the side-by-side
compares the major provisions relating to the role of private health plans
in Medicare. This document includes a more in-depth description of the bills,
which were previously summarized in publication #6095
(released in June, 2003). This side-by-side will continue to be updated to reflect the Conference Agreement.
Source: Kaiser Family Foundation
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8/04/03 | HarrisInteractive: Medicare Drug Benefit
This Harris Poll Interactive
report attempts to gauge how the public may
react to the passage of a new Medicare prescription drug benefit.
This Harris Poll was conducted between July 14 and 20, 2003 with a nationwide
sample of 2,215 adults surveyed online.
Source: Harris Poll
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7/30/03 | The New Medicare Drug Entitlement’s Huge New Tax on Working Americans
This Backgrounder by Brian M. Riedl and William W. Beach suggests
a Medicare drug benefit would add $2 trillion in cumulative costs to
Medicare through 2030. The paper provides examples of higher taxes
that could be used to finance those costs.
Source: Heritage Foundation
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7/29/03 | How Do Patterns of Prescription Drug Coverage and Use Differ for White, African American, and Latino Medicare Beneficiaries Under 65 and 65+
This chartpack provides a snapshot
of racial/ethnic differences in Medicare beneficiaries’
prescription drug coverage, use, and spending. It examines
patterns separately for beneficiaries under age 65 and 65+.
The summary discusses the relevance of the key findings to the
current policy debates about prescription drug coverage.
Source: Kaiser Family Foundation
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7/24/03 | Unequal Access: African-American Medicare Beneficiaries and the Prescription Drug Gap
This study finds that African-American Medicare beneficiaries
age 65 and older are more than twice as likely as elderly white beneficiaries
to report they could not afford to fill at least one prescription in the
last year. Older African-American beneficiaries are much more likely
to be poor and to lack supplemental insurance.
Source: Center for Studying Health System Change
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7/23/03 | Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance And Prescription Drug Coverage For New Retirees:
Dramatic Declines In Five Years
This study’s findings, reported in a Web Exclusive in Health Affairs
show that employer coverage is becoming an increasingly less dependable
source of coverage for new retirees, and the problem is likely to get worse.
The study finds that the proportion of Medicare beneficiaries ages 65–69 with
employer coverage declined from 46 percent in 1996 to 39 percent in 2000.
The proportion with drug coverage from an employer declined from 40
percent in 1996 to 35 percent in 2000.
Source: Health Affairs
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7/22/03 | Revised Cost Estimates for H.R. 1 and S. 1 Medicare Prescription Drug and Modernization Act of 2003
The CBO provides revised cost estimates for the House and Senate Medicare drug legislation in this document. The report finds
that S.1 would cost approximately $437 billion net and H.R. 1 would cost $567 billion net in the next decade, exceeding the $400 billion cost cap agreed to by the White House and Congressional members.
The report also claims that allowing prescription drug reimportation will likely not lower drug costs in the U.S.
Source: Congressional Budget Office (CBO)
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7/15/03 | Paying The Price: A 19-State Survey of the High Cost of Prescription Drugs
Nationally, uninsured consumers were charged 72 percent more on average for
10 common prescription medications than the federal government, according to findings
by this new survey conducted by U.S. PIRG.
Source: U.S. Public Interest Research Group
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7/09/03 | Out of Bounds: Rising Prescription Drug Prices for Seniors
The prices of the 50 most-prescribed drugs to senior citizens rose,
on average, nearly three-and-one-half times the rate of inflation last year,
according to a new report. The report finds that among the top 50 drugs sold to seniors,
more than half (27) rose in price at least three times the rate of inflation
from January 2002 to January 2003.
Source: Families U.S.A.
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7/03/03 | Getting Doctors to Say 'Yes' to Drugs: the Cost and Quality Impact of Drug Company Marketing to Physicians
This white paper addresses the impact on both the appropriate and
inappropriate use of prescription drugs from pharmaceutical companies'
promotional practices to physicians.
Source: BlueCross BlueShield Association
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6/27/03 | How Much Will the Senate Drug Bill Cost a Family of Four?
This Web Memo discusses CBO cost esimates for the Senate Medicare prescription drug bill (S.1) and the costs faced by families should the legislation remain unchanged.
Source: Heritage Foundation
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6/26/03 | Medicare's Future: Current Picture, Trends, and Prescription Drug Policy Debate to Protect Profits
This PowerPoint slide collection highlights recent research and
analytical findings on Medicare, including an overview of prescription
drug benefit designs currently under consideration by Congress.
The charts are also available in a .pdf version.
Source: Commonwealth Fund
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6/23/03 | The Other Drug War 2003: Drug Companies Deploy an Army of 675 Lobbyist to Protect Profits
This report finds that the drug industry hired 675 different lobbyists from 138 firms in 2002,
according to federal lobbying disclosure records. The industry spent a $91.4 million on lobbying activities in 2002,
a 12 percent increase from 2001.
A companion study, "2002 Drug
Industry Profits: Hefty Pharmaceutical Company Margins Dwarf Other Industries," finds that the 10 drug
companies in the Fortune 500 saw $35.9 billion in profits in 2002, a drop of 3.5 percent from 2001.
Source: Public Citizen
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6/19/03 | National Survey of the Public's Views on Medicare
A new national survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health
examines the public's attitudes and opinions on issues related to the Medicare reform and
prescription drug debate. The survey also takes a separate look at the differing views of
younger and older Americans on this topic. Includes a chartpack and toplines.
Source: Kaiser Family Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health
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6/18/03 | What Happens When Traditional Medicare Has to Bid Against Private Plans? An Example of How the House Bill Would Privatize Medicare
This briefing applies the provisions of the House Medicare
prescription drug bill to hypothetical beneficiaries' situations.
Source: Families USA
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6/17/03 | Cost Estimate for S. 1, Prescription Drug and Medicare Improvement Act of 2003
This report analyzes S.1 as it was reported reported by the Committee on Finance, and incorporating subsequent changes provided by the committee on June 17, 2003.
Source: Congressional Budget Office
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6/17/03 | (H.R. 2473) "Medicare Prescription Drug Modernization Act of 2003"
The legislation was approved by the House Ways and Means committee June 17, 2003. The legislation creates a prescription drug benefit in Medicare and was introduced by Rep. Bill Thomas (R-Calif.) June 16, 2003.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee reported a version of the legislation June 20, 2003.
The House Ways and Means Committee has also produced a summary of the legislation.
Source: House Ways and Means Committee
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6/17/03 | Skimpy Benefits and Unchecked Expenditures: Medicare Prescription Drug Bills
Fail to Offer Adequate Protection for Seniors and People with Disabilities
The report, prepared by Gail Shearer, directly challenges claims that the House
and Senate bills, as currently drafted, will provide the needed relief
that millions of consumers who currently go without prescription drug coverage are expecting.
Source: Consumers Union
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6/12/03 | Impact of Direct-to-Consumer Advertising on Prescription Drug Spending
This study by researchers at Harvard University and the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology looks at the effect of direct-to-consumer (DTC)
advertising on spending for prescription drugs. The study found that,
on average, a 10% increase in DTC advertising of drugs within a therapeutic
drug class resulted in a 1% increase in sales of the drugs in that class.
Source: Kaiser Family Foundation
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6/12/03 | Medicare and Prescription Drug Spending Chartpack
This chartpack provides 2003 and 2006 estimates of total and out-of-pocket prescription drug spending by Medicare beneficiaries.
The data and analysis for this chartpack, prepared by Actuarial Research Corporation, assume no change in current law.
Source: Kaiser Family Foundation
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6/11/03 | (S. 1) Prescription Drug and Medicare Improvement Act of 2003
Senators Max Baucus (D-Mont.), Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) introduced this legislation to the Senate Finance Committee. The Committee approved the legislation June 12.
The legislation creates a Medicare prescription drug benefit.
On June 20, 2003, an amendment (S.AMDT.946) that would permit pharmacists and drug distributors to reimport prescription drugs from Canada passed.
Source: (S. 1) Prescription Drug and Medicare Improvement Act of 2003
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6/10/03 | Health Insurance Spending Report - How Does Medicare Compare?
This study compares the spending growth rates of Medicare and
leading insurance programs for government employees. The study
compared Medicare with the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program
(FEHBP), which provides health insurance for federal workers and retirees,
and the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), which
provides health insurance for California state and municipal workers and retirees.
Source: Senate Joint Economic Committee
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6/09/03 | Medicare Prescription Drugs Through Private Drug-Only Plans: A Discussion with Actuaries?
This report offers views from health actuaries knowledgeable about
the Medicare program and the prescription drug debate on key issues that
emerge for potential plan sponsors, such as insurers and PBMs,
in providing prescription drug benefits to Medicare beneficiaries
through private, drug-only plans. The views of the actuaries were
obtained through structured individual and group phone interviews
conducted in the Spring of 2003.
Source: Kaiser Family Foundation
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6/05/03 | (H.R. 2356) The Prescription Drug Comparative Effectiveness Act
Introduced by Representatives Tom Allen (D-ME) and Jo Ann Emerson (R-MO),
this bipartisan initiative would provide doctors with evidenced-based research on prescription drugs.
This legislation provides the National Institutes of Health $50 million to conduct research, and the Agency for Healthcare Research Quality $25 million to conduct
studies on the comparative effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of prescription drugs that account for high
levels of expenditures or use by individuals in federally funded health programs.
Additional materials are available through Rep. Allen's Web site.
Source: (H.R. 2356) The Prescription Drug Comparative Effectiveness Act
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6/03/03 | 2002 Drug Trend Report
This annual report from a pharmacy benefit management finds that
fully a third of the 2002 overall drug trend increase was attributable
to just four drug classes -- gastrointestinal, anti-cholesterol,
antidepressant and blood pressure drugs -- primarily due to more people using these drugs. Other findings are documented in the report.
Source: 2002 Drug Trend Report
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5/30/03 | Prescription Drug Trends Fact Sheet
This updated 2-page fact sheet provides trend data for prescription
drug coverage, expenditures, and the key factors that contribute
to rising prescription spending: increases in utilization and prices,
and changes in drug use from older drugs to newer higher-priced drugs.
Source: Kaiser Family Foundation
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5/29/03 | Recent Medicaid Prescription Drug Laws and Strategies, 2001-2003
So far in 2003, new laws have been signed in Connecticut, Colorado,
Iowa, Montana, New Mexico, New York, Utah, Virginia and Wyoming. New
executive branch initiatives for multi-state purchasing are being
implemented in Michigan, South Carolina, Vermont and Wisconsin,
while new Maryland, Massachusetts and New York regulations affect
preferred drug lists and fees. This document discusses the new state legislation and legislative actions.
Source: National Conference of State Legislatures
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5/19/03 | Supreme Court Opinion in Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) v. Walsh
In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court lifted an injunction that prevented Maine from implementing the prescription drug program Maine Rx.
Under Maine Rx, the state would negotiate with pharmaceutical companies for rebates on prescription drugs equal to or larger than those for the Medicaid program. The state then passes the rebate to pharmacies, which would offer a discount to state residents without prescription drug coverage, regardless of income. Should a drug company not grant a discount on a particular drug, then Maine would require doctors to obtain prior authorization before prescribing those medicines to Medicaid beneficiaries. The legislation was passed in 2000, the same year PhRMA initiated the suit to block the program's implementation, alleging that it violates federal Medicaid law and interstate commerce laws. A federal district court in Maine ruled in favor of PhRMA, but the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston overturned the decision in May 2001 and Maine appealed the decision to the Supreme Court.
Source: FindLaw: Supreme Court Opinions
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