Excerpt from Health Care Reform, Vol. 5: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Health of the Committee on Ways and Means, House of Representatives, One Hundred Third Congress, First Session According to a 1989 report to the Congress issued by the Department of Health and Human Services, the average, non institutionalized Medicare beneficiary used an average of prescriptions per year in 1987. In addition, average usage increased somewhat with age. The average number of prescriptions per person has also increased over time. Individuals with functional impairments (measured by two or more limitations in their activities of daily living) used an average of prescriptions per year, and individuals in poor health used an average of 31 prescriptions per year. In 1992, about half of health plans offered by large employers included some form of prescription drug coverage. However, according to the most recent data available, only about 30 percent of outpatient prescription drugs for the elderly were billed to either Medicaid or other third party insurers. An unknown number of the remaining prescriptions may have been submitted to an insurer by the patient. There is cur-ently no benefit for self-administered, outpatient prescription drugs under Medicare. The Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act of 1988 had included such coverage, however, this law was repealed in 1989. There are a variety of important considerations in the design of a prescription drug benefit for the elderly including financing, patient cost sharing, such as deductibles and coinsurance, and issues relating to cost containment. A number of recent reports indicate that the current market for prescription drugs may not be an effective mechanism for controlling prices. The Office of Technology Assessment has reported that the pharmaceutical industry has been earning profits from the sale of prescription drugs well in excess of the level needed to pay for its debt from research and development. In addition, the General Accounting Office (gao) has documented that prices of many drugs have substantially exceeded the rate of general inflation. The gao also has documented that drug prices in the domestic market are far above the prices charged for the same products in other countries. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.