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Subject: New Study Examines Supplemental Medicare Coverage
A new analysis released in today’s online issue of the journal Health Affairs examines trends in Medicare supplemental insurance and prescription drug coverage. Using the most recent available national survey data, it finds that as many as 38% of seniors lacked prescription drug coverage in the Fall of 1999. The article by Mary Laschober, Ph.D., of the Barents Group of KPMG Consulting and researchers at the Kaiser Family Foundation can be found at http://www.healthaffairs.org/WebExclusives/Laschober_Web_Excl_022702.htm “Trends in Medicare Supplemental Insurance and Prescription Drug Coverage, 1996-1999,” reports that the overall share of people on Medicare with supplemental coverage remained fairly constant during the four-year period ending in 1999, with a 5.1 percentage point gain in Medicare HMO enrollment offsetting a comparable decline in Medigap enrollment. During this time period, there was an increase in prescription drug coverage, from 57% to 62%, which the authors attribute to the increase in Medicare HMO coverage. Using point-in-time estimates, this study finds 38% of all beneficiaries were without drug coverage in the Fall of 1999, in contrast to previously published national estimates from 1998 that show 27% of all beneficiaries lacked drug coverage at some time during the year (Poisal, J., Murray, L., Health Affairs, March/April 2001). The difference between the two estimates of drug coverage is largely attributable to gaps in drug coverage that beneficiaries experienced during the course of a year. The study also finds that Medicare’s most vulnerable beneficiaries were the most likely to lack drug coverage in the Fall of 1999 – particularly those who live in rural areas (50%), the near-poor (44%) and the oldest-old (45%).
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