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Although the Medicare prescription drug program has provided access to medications for seniors at a lower cost to the government than was originally expected and has lowered the out of pocket costs for the consumers, there is talk about needing to overhaul the program. Critics contend that the government should be able to negotiate lower costs for prescription drugs than private insurances can. It is also felt that the entire program is too confusing for the elderly beneficiaries and needs to be made more understandable (Wechsler, 2008). All of these proposed changes come with Medicare still trying to uphold there objectives of providing affordable prescription drugs to seniors.
It is believed that even with these proposed changes taking place there is still a need for greater education about the program as a whole. It is hoped that with increased education that consumers will be more informed about the choices that they make. And thus reduce the amount of problems that they have later on (Hsu, Fung, Price, et al., 2008). During the first few years of this program it was found that many people were completely confused about what choices...
And although Medicare Part D seems to be meeting its current goals and objectives, there appears to be room for improvement. It is a work in progress and just as the healthcare arena is always changing this will have to change right along with it.
References
Hsu, John, Fung, Vicki, Price, Mary, Huang, Jie, Brand, Richard, PharmD, Rita Hui,
Fireman, Bruce and Newhouse, Joseph. (2008). Medicare Beneficiaries' Knowledge of Part D Prescription Drug Program Benefits and Responses to Drug Costs. Journal of the American Medical Association, 299(16), 1929-1939. doi: 10.1001/jama.299.16.1929)
Lichtenberg, Frank R. And Sun, Shawn X. (2007). The Impact of Medicare Part D on Prescription Drug Use by the Elderly.
Health Affairs, 26(6), 1735-1744. doi:
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