The Effect of Medicare Part D on Pharmaceutical Prices and Utilization

摘要

Prescription drug expenditures represent the most rapidly growing component of health care spending, increasing from 5 percent of health care spending in 1980 to more than 10 percent by 2005 (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) 2007a). Further, almost 60 percent of all prescriptions in the United States are filled for beneficiaries of Medicare, Medicaid, and other government programs. Rapid innovation in new pharmaceuticals has contributed substantially to quality of life and longevity in the US (Frank Lichtenberg 1996). These facts, combined, indicate that government procurement schemes are critical both in determining government expenditure on pharmaceuticals and in stimulating innovation of new treatments.