Increased Concern About Inability of Elderly to Afford Medications

Medicare Part D was implemented to make prescriptions more affordable for senior citizens.  But a new study by Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute researchers published in Health Affairs found that many seniors, particularly those with multiple chronic conditions, continue to have difficulty paying for prescriptions in the years since Medicare Part D was first offered. As a result, some cease taking medication altogether, skip pills, or forgo other basic needs to pay for them.   
 
Huseyin Naci, lead author of the study and a fellow at the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute at Harvard Medical School and the research team found that medication affordability improved after implementation of Medicare Part D in 2006, and continued to improve for several years (2007-09), but that these gains eroded during 2009-11.
 
There are several possible reasons for recent worsening trends.  They may be due to accumulating effects of weak economic conditions in the US or increasingly restrictive coverage rules among private Part D plans. Researchers concluded that elderly beneficiaries with four or greater chronic conditions had the hardest time paying for their medications.  For example, 17% of the sickest elderly reported cost-related medication nonadherence in 2011, versus 8.4% among healthier elderly beneficiaries.  The sickest elderly were also about 3 times more likely than others to report going without other basic needs in order to afford their medications in 2011. By 2011, the risk of skimping on other basic needs in order to pay for pills was no longer significantly better among the sickest elderly than it had been prior to Part D. The study was based on data from the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey, an annual survey administered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. 
 
To read the full article in Health Affairs click here.