Medicare beneficiaries and drug coverage

Whether or not to add a prescription drug benefit to the basic Medicare pac kage is at the forefront of congressional debate. Using data from the 1996 Medicare Current Beneficiary survey (MCBS), we examine changes in drug insu rance coverage levels from 1995 to 1996 and compare drug use and spending d ata for Medicare beneficiaries with and without drug coverage. The data sho w that enrollees without drug insurance consistently use fewer prescription s, spend more out of pocket, and have less in total drug expenditures than their insured peers.