- Title
- Utilization effects of prescription drug benefits in an aging population.
- First Author
- Gianfrancesco, Frank D
- Date of Pub
- 1994 Spring
- Pages
- 113-126
- Volume
- 15
- Issue
- 3
- Other Authors
- Baines, Arthur P; Richards, David
- Abstract
- In this article, the effects of prescription drug coverage on use are analyzed for beneficiaries of a large retiree health benefit fund in a quasi-experiment comparing new and established enrollees. Newer enrollees show an 18-percentage point greater increase in prescription drug expenditures per capita than established enrollees during the 3-year period following enrollment. This differential is interpreted as the insurance effect of prescription coverage. The impact was greater among high-cost drugs than among low-cost drugs, and also greater among low users of prescription drugs than among high users. No clear patterns were discerned across therapeutic categories.
- Abstract Continued
- N/A
- MeSH
- Aged : Cost Sharing : Drug Costs/statistics & numerical data : Drug Utilization/economics/statistics & numerical data : Health Benefit Plans, Employee/utilization : Health Services Research/methods : Human : Insurance, Pharmaceutical Services/utilization : Labor Unions : Retirement/economics
- NTIS Number
- PB95-123477
