Medicare: Prescription Drug Expenditures, 1997

Publication Date: April 2001

Publisher: Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service

Author(s):

Research Area: Health

Type:

Abstract:

Medicare beneficiaries spent, on average, a total of $744 per person for prescription drugs in 1997 (including beneficiaries' out-of-pocket expenses and payments made by any third party payers). Approximately 37% of beneficiaries had total prescription drug expenditures of between $0 and $250. Approximately 25% of beneficiaries had total prescription drug expenditures between $1 and $250, which represented 4% of overall drug expenditures for beneficiaries. In contrast, 8% of beneficiaries with total drug expenditures above $2,000 accounted for 33% of overall drug expenditures. Beneficiaries' out-of-pocket expense for prescription drugs in 1997 was $347, on average, though about 60% of beneficiaries spent less than $250 out-of-pocket on prescription drugs. Beneficiaries with no drug coverage spent, on average, $520 for drugs, while those with drug coverage had total drug expenditures averaging $826 and out-of-pocket expenditures averaging $284. Total and out-of-pocket costs of prescription drugs vary by supplemental insurance coverage.