Designing a Medicare Drug Benefit: Whose Needs Will Be Met?

December 1, 2000

Authors: Bruce Stuart, Becky Briesacher, and Dennis Shea

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Overview

Which Medicare beneficiaries need prescription drug coverage the most? Whose needs are greatest? The answers, of course, depend on how one defines "need." As this policy brief shows, if poverty income alone is used to determine need, only a minority of Medicare beneficiaries would qualify for prescription drug coverage.

Citation

Designing a Medicare Drug Benefit: Whose Needs Will Be Met?, Bruce Stuart, Becky Briesacher, and Dennis Shea, The Commonwealth Fund, December 2000