Population Characteristics of Medicare Beneficiaries in the U.S. Civilian Noninstitutionalized Population, by Level of Annual Prescribed Medicines Expenses, 2003. Statistical Brief No. 138

摘要

Using data for the U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized (community) population from the 2003 Household Component of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS-HC), this Statistical Brief com-pares the population characteristics of Medicare beneficiaries having different levels of annual outpatient prescribed drug expenses. Starting January 1, 2006, a new Medicare prescription drug coverage (Medicare Part D) was made available to everyone with Medicare. Everyone with Medicare had the option to enroll in this program and obtain coverage that may help lower their prescription drug costs and help protect them against higher costs in the future. The estimates in this brief are presented in terms of the expense categories in the standard Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit for this new Medicare Part D, which consists of a multi-tiered benefit with three drug cost and cost-sharing categories. In this brief, these 2006 expense categories have been deflated to 2003 dollars, and drug expenses have been rounded to the nearest whole dollar. Only prescribed medicines purchases in an outpatient setting are included in the estimates presented in the brief. Over-the-counter medicines are excluded from these estimates as are prescription medicines administered in an inpatient setting or in a clinic or physician's office. All differences discussed in the text are statistically significant at the 0.05 level.