PHILADELPHIA, May 3 /PRNewswire/ -- When President Bush signed the highly anticipated Medicare reform bill last year, the first federal outpatient drug benefit for seniors became law. Many of the nation’s elderly will benefit from the new coverage when it begins in 2006, but others, including many poor elderly who receive Medicaid, could actually see their coverage reduced.
“Poor seniors will now get their drug coverage under Medicare, rather than under Medicaid as they do now,” said Robert Field, J.D., M.P.H., Ph.D., director of the Health Policy Program at University of the Sciences in Philadelphia. “But this coverage will be more restrictive than what they are used to. There will be formularies that limit what drugs they can get and possibly co-payments and deductibles.”
State budgets could also be hit. Medicaid is run at the state level, and state Medicaid programs will now be required to reimburse the federal government for providing the drug benefit. Dr. Field said that this could turn out to cost them more.
“If states want their elderly Medicaid recipients to have as good a drug benefit as what they have now, they will have to pay extra,” said Dr. Field. “In other words, either states will have to bear higher costs, or those on Medicaid will have more limited drug coverage. This could become a growing problem as drugs become increasingly important in health care.”
Note: This topic and others involving Medicaid will be debated by a panel of national experts on May 12 during a symposium at USP on “The Future of Medicaid: What Will Medicaid Look Like in 2010?” For more information, visit http://www.usip.edu/symposium.
University of the Sciences in Philadelphia is a private, coeducational institution founded in 1821 as Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, the first college of pharmacy in North America. Comprising four colleges across a broad range of majors, USP specializes in educating students for rewarding careers through its undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degree programs in the health and related sciences.
University of the Sciences in Philadelphia
CONTACT: John M. Martino, +1-215-895-1186, or Carolyn Vivaldi,+1-215-596-8855, both for University of the Sciences in Philadelphia
Web site: http://www.usip.edu/symposium
