Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit Analysis

Since its establishment in 1965 we have seen Medicare change as people’s needs change however being a federal program these changes do have an incredible amount of lag time. One of the first major changes to Medicare occurred in 1972 when President Nixon signed the Social Security Amendments of 1972 which extended coverage to individuals under age 65 with long-term disabilities, expanded benefits to include some chiropractic services and speech and physical therapy. During this time we see the American public growing tired of the Vietnam Conflict and lack of support and care for those returning Marines and soldiers with severe disabilities. As the protests escalate and the peace initiatives fail a key piece of legislation is signed showing government support and a willingness to extend health care benefits to this growing and vocal population of veterans (The Vietnam War, 1999). Also included in this Amendment is the encouragement of the use of Health Maintenance Organizations, President Nixon’s administration caught in the scandal of Watergate and pending hearings appeased the left and proposed the HMO Act, which Congress passed in 1973 (Phillips, 2003).

Medicare Part D is prescription drug coverage. It’s the newest part in Medicare. It adds prescription drug coverage to original Medicare, some Medicare cost plans, some Medicare PPS plans, and Medicare Medical Savings plans. Beneficiaries choose the drug plan and pay a monthly premium.

The New York Times printed an article by Robert Pear, which reported that on December 24, 2009, the US senate passed the first bill, which would call for major reform regarding health care in the United States (Pear). The article titled “Senate Passes Health Care Overhaul on Party-Line Vote,” discusses the fact that while this step was a major milestone in the process of providing Americans with affordable heath care, it was not the end of the road. Over the coming months and years there would be a lot of give and take between democrats and republicans to revise the bill to the point where both sides could support it. One of the major points in this reform is that the US government was now going to offer affordable plans including subsidy options which would allow more Americans affordable options which were

Implications that have been made to the Medicare program have changed the aspect of it tremendously. One fear that was held about Medicare is how the increase of government involvement when it came to disability and medical coverage would give the government too much power (American Medical Association). An aspect of Medicare is that it was created when hospitals were still segregated which negatively impacted the minority population. This posed as threat because many Americans were not receiving the proper treatment fast enough which put many lives on the line. The enactment of Medicare was a political struggle, in the early 1950’s and late 1960’s which brought to the attention of officials that actions needed to be taken to make it easier for elder Americans to access high costing health care. Officials concluded that this new social insurance would serves as means to aiding in paying for hospital care, post-hospital nursing home care and home health services. Bush and Clinton Administration added to the idea of health

My group spoke against the motion with each person speaking on a particular subtopic. On my part of the group I talked about the several parts of Medicare: part A, B, C and D, the people it covers, their rights, and benefits to their beneficiaries, how much spend on Medicare and how it affects Medicare beneficiaries out of pocket cost. Concrete examples were given on how premium support program would shift more cost to beneficiaries; especially, traditional Medicare recipients and how it could affect Medicare beneficiaries out-of-pocket cost, increase mortality rate and health risk. Also, why the federal government spends more on Medicare: baby boom generation. For instance, Medicare is a health insurance plan provided by the federal government for people age 65 and older, young people with disabilities and individuals with chronic health diseases. These individual are people with less ability to work more or harder to save money for their medical cost as well as other expenses. They are weak and vulnerable, and even if they have saved money from their young age or their parents have saved money for their health, that money would diminish since there is no more income or less revenue for them. According to Henry K Kaiser Family Foundation report dated April 2016, from 2011 statistics - two-thirds of beneficiaries (66%) had three or more chronic conditions. More than one-quarter of all recipients (27%) reported being in fair or poor health, and just over 3 in 10 (31%)

I choose the book because it serves as a back-bone towards the portfolio project. The book provides comprehensive knowledge about the creation of Medicare and Medicaid, and how the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act impacted these public health insurances. Chapter 3 gives a summary on how Medicare and Medicaid became a public health insurance – to serve the elderly population and then expanded to serve low-income families. Chapter 5 discusses “meaningful use” – Medicare and Medicaid started to offer financial incentives to health care organizations who have met a range of metrics such as

Ron is very happy as an enrolled participant of Medicare and specifically Medicare Part D. His eligibility for Medicare and the affordability of health insurance at the spry age of 74 was a blessing for Ron and his wife. Like Ron and his wife, many of the elderly depend on payments from government sources for their health care, and there is concern that this part of the system is also in decay. Medicare is a federal health insurance

The Pharmaceutical lobbyist has a very powerful impact on the outcome of Medicare Part D. They were the ones that wrote the bill and presented it to the House and ultimately, it was passed. However, the tactics that were used were extremely questionable and unethical. A Democratic Representative from Michigan stated: “I can tell you when the bill passed, there were better than 1,000 pharmaceutical lobbyists working on this” (Singer, 2007). The

I enjoyed your post. I never knew about Medicare Part D and I'm not sure why. Medicare Part D built the biggest addition and changes to Medicare in 2003 (Niles,2015). This program receives most of the funds from the federal government through tax revenues. The main purpose of this program was to provide aid for the costly price for prescription drugs for seniors. Like you mentioned, this is a voluntary program to enroll in and requires premiums. Additionally, Medicare part C has Medicare Part D already included in the benefits. The benefits of Part D include affordable prescription plans for those enrolled in Medicare Advantage, traditional Medicare health plan, and for low-income seniors (Niles, 2015). The Medicare Prescription Drug

The purpose of this essay is to discuss Medicare Part D, as well as the influence of the various interest groups and governmental entities during this process. This essay will discuss both the policy process and the policy environment (the key players involved and other circumstances that shaped this policy-making effort), how stakeholder groups influenced the final outcome of Medicare Part D legislation, the specific strategies and tools that were used most effectively, and if the fact that Medicare Part D passed corresponds with my understanding of policy and politics.

compromise between Democrats and Republicans which account for Part A and Part B of Medicare. Democrats supported hospital in patient coverage which is part A and Republicans supported outpatient coverage which is Part B. Medicare was created for citizens age 65 and older no matter what that citizen income or medical history, but by 1972 they rewrote the criteria of coverage by allowing citizens under the age of 65 with disabilities to qualify for Medicare. Medicare did not initially include prescription drug benefits. By 2003 Medicare have added Part D through private firms. As time passed Medicare started requiring the consumers to pay about $310 on their prescription drug costs for baseline deductible, and the plan will cover up to 78% of

Due to the upcoming presidential election, the two major political parties, and their candidates, have been focusing on the primary problems that the nation will face. Chief among those problems is the future of Medicare, the national health-insurance plan. Medicare was enacted in 1965, under the administration of Lyndon B. Johnson, in order to provide health insurance for retired citizens and the disabled (Ryan). The Medicare program covers most people aged 65 or older, as well as handicapped people who enroll in the program, and consists of two health plans: a hospital insurance plan (part A) and a medical insurance plan (part B) (Marmor 22). Before Medicare, many Americans didn't have health

The major purpose of this work is to completely discuss about the Medicare Part D which will set an influence on the different interest groups and all the entities of government which have been set under the policy changing process. There has been a complete set environment which involved and shape the policy to make efforts as to how all the groups of the stakeholders are influences with the Medical Part D. All the legislation and the specific strategies are made in correspondence to the politics. (Powell et al., 2015). The Medicare Part D is also said to be Medicare prescription drug benefit which directs to setting the United States Federal government programs to work on the subsidizing costs of all the drugs of prescription which insure premiums for the Medicare in US. There is a great enactment which has been based on Medicare Modernization Act of 2003. In December 2003, there are major Medicare Prescriptions which have become into the Improvement and Modernisation Act to become a proper law. There has been a great benefit from the drugs which provides an entire coverage to all the disables and the elderly people who could not have the ability to manage it.

The purpose of this bill was to make alterations to the Social Security Act allowing pharmacists to be recognized as healthcare providers. Pharmacists would practice, under the direction of CPAs, with in the Medicare Program (part B) (U.S Surgeon General Report 2011). The legislation motion illustrated the value of pharmacists at the lawmaking level. The bill was cleared from the books. There was a second attempt in August of 2001. The bill was referred to a subcommittee on health but eventually was also cleared form the books. In August of 2004, a new bill, the Medicare Pharmacists Practitioner Service Coverage Act was presented to the House of Representatives. The goal was also to allow pharmacists to provide practitioner services within the part B Medicare program. There was some progress with this bill because the modification that would add pharmacists to the lists of non-physician practitioners that are currently being reimbursed for services was considered. Unfortunately just like before, the bill was referred to the subcommittee of health and there was no further actions taken. Since July of 2011, there have been three pharmacy‐related bills that have been introduced into the 112th Congress, 1st Session (Appendix 2). All of the bills push to allow pharmacists to be more involved in clinical care through the expansion of their current scope of practice. The Medication Management Therapy Benefits Act of 2011(H.R. 891) is a bill that was designed again to propose a change to the part D Medicare portion of the Social Security Act. This act suggests that medication therapy management (MTM) and prescription drug plans (PDP) be handled by qualified medical professionals including pharmacists. In order for this to happen, pharmacist would have to be recognized as healthcare

The purpose of this essay is to discuss Medicare Part D, as well as the influence of the various interest groups and governmental entities during this process. This essay will discuss both the policy process and the policy environment (the key players involved and other circumstances that shaped this policy-making effort), how stakeholder groups influenced the final outcome of Medicare Part D legislation, the specific strategies and tools that were used most effectively, and if the fact that Medicare Part D passed corresponds with my understanding of policy and politics. Medicare Part D, also called the Medicare prescription drug benefit, is a United States federal-government program to subsidize the costs of prescription drugs and prescription drug insurance premiums for Medicare beneficiaries in the United States. Enacted as part of the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 and went into effect on January 1, 2006 (Wikipedia, 2010). In December 2003, the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act (MMA) became law. The act created the Medicare Part D drug benefit to provide drug coverage to elderly and disabled people who did not previously have it. The stand-alone prescription drug plans that are the lynchpin of the program did not previously exist. The structure of the program is clearly intended to increase the role of private plans in Medicare (The