Counting Income Under Medicare's New Prescription Drug Benefit

Publication Date: February 2004

Publisher: Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service

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Research Area: Health

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Abstract:

When calculating a Medicare beneficiary's income-to-poverty ratio for low-income eligibility purposes, not all income is counted; certain amounts and types of income are disregarded. This report describes how income is counted for determining eligibility for the low-income Medicare prescription drug benefit that begins in 2006. In addition, this report provides hypothetical examples of Medicare beneficiaries' income and what their income-to-poverty ratio would be using the definition of income in P.L. 108-173. This report will be updated as needed.