Prescription drugs, medical care, and health outcomes
Subtitle: a model of elderly health
By: Zhou Yang, Donna B. Gilleskie, Edward C. Norton.
Contributors: Gilleskie, Donna B.; Norton, Edward C.; National Bureau of Economic Research.
Series: NBER working paper series ;; working paper 10964; Working paper series (National Bureau of Economic Research : Online) ;; working paper no. 10964.
Publisher: National Bureau of Economic Research
Published: 2004
Place of publication: Cambridge, MA
Language: eng
Format: Electronic resource
Subjects: United States; Medicare; Insurance, Pharmaceutical services -- United States; Older people -- United States -- Pharmaceutical assistance; Prescription pricing -- United States
Description: "There is much debate about whether the Medicare Prescription Drug Bill - the greatest expansion of Medicare benefits since its creation in 1965 - will improve the health of elderly Americans, and how much it will cost.  We model how insurance affects medical care utilization, and subsequently, health outcomes over time in a dynamic model with correlated errors.  Longitudinal individual-level data from the 1992-1998 Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey provide estimates of these effects.  Simulations over five years show that expanding prescription drug coverage would increase drug expenditures by between 12% and 17%.  However, other health care expenditures would only increase slightly, and the mortality rate would improve"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
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Mode of access: World Wide Web.