Income and the use of prescription drugs by the elderly
Subtitle: evidence from the notch cohorts
By: John R. Moran, Kosali Ilayperuma Simon.
Contributors: Simon, Kosali Ilayperuma.; National Bureau of Economic Research.
Series: NBER working paper series ;; working paper 11068; Working paper series (National Bureau of Economic Research : Online) ;; working paper no. 11068.
Publisher: National Bureau of Economic Research
Published: 2005
Place of publication: Cambridge, MA
Language: eng
Format: Electronic resource
Subjects: Older people -- Medical care -- United States -- Costs.; Drugs -- Prescribing -- United States -- Costs.; Social security -- United States.; Retirement income -- United States.
Description: "We use exogenous variation in Social Security payments created by the Social Security benefits notch to estimate how retirees' use of prescription medications responds to changes in their incomes.  In contrast to estimates obtained using ordinary least squares, instrumental variables estimates based on the notch suggest that lower-income retirees exhibit considerable income sensitivity in their use of prescription drugs.  Our estimates are potentially useful for thinking about the health care usage implications of any changes in transfer payments to the elderly that may occur in the future, and for evaluating the benefits of the recently enacted Medicare prescription drug benefit"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
Title from PDF file as viewed on 2/1/2005.
Also available in print.
System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Mode of access: World Wide Web.