Medicare Part D: A Benefit Analysis

In the United States, a large number of people rely heavily on a federally provided healthcare system of insurance coverage known as Medicare. This program is available for people with disabilities as well as those of age sixty-five and up, with the huge majority of those enrolled in the program being part of the latter group. This means that a lot of the United States’ aging population is very dependent on this federal program as their main source of healthcare coverage. This reliance is particularly high for low-income older Americans who can’t afford more comprehensive insurance. While this source of insurance is a huge help in making healthcare more widespread and affordable, especially after retirement, it does have its flaws. The key and most controversial flaw is Medicare Part D—a benefit expansion to Medicare that offers coverage of a beneficiary’s prescription medications. This piece of …show more content…
The first issue is that Medicare Part D’s implementation was under condition that Medicare cannot negotiate drug prices. This means that Medicare and drug manufacturers cannot negotiate discounts or any form of price reduction the way other insurances, such as Medicaid, can (Dalen, 2009). Without this allowance of negotiation, coupons and discounts are out of the question for those covered via Medicare—the insurance company has to pay the full price of every drug, and that’s the only choice for Medicare. To balance the expenses of having to pay for medications at full price, Medicare then has to turn to other forms of making money and reducing their costs, creating the second key issue of Medicare: the doughnut hole. This second issue is a hugely consequential one for beneficiaries, therefore the doughnut hole and the effects it has on the medication use of Medicare beneficiaries with Part D coverage will be the main focus of this