Effects of Prescription Drug Insurance on Hospitalization and Mortality: Evidence from Medicare Part D / Robert Kaestner, Cuiping Long, G. Caleb Alexander.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kaestner, Robert.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Long, Cuiping.

Alexander, G. Caleb.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w19948.

NBER working paper series no. w19948

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

Effects of Prescription Drug Insurance on Hospitalization and Mortality

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2014.

Summary:

We examine whether obtaining prescription drug insurance through the Medicare Part D program affected hospital admissions, expenditures associated with those admissions, and mortality. We use a large, geographically diverse sample of Medicare beneficiaries and exploit the natural experiment of Medicare Part D to obtain estimates of the effect of prescription drug insurance on hospitalizations and mortality. Results indicate that obtaining prescription drug insurance through Medicare Part D was associated with an 8% decrease in the number of hospital admissions, a 7% decrease in Medicare expenditures, and a 12% decrease in total resource use. Gaining prescription drug insurance through Medicare Part D was not significantly associated with mortality.

Notes:

Print version record

February 2014.