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Making Medicines Affordable
Senator Byrd Focuses on Medicare Prescription Drug Coverage
Fast Facts: Medicare and Prescription Drugs

Originally established in 1965, Medicare was designed to provide health care benefits to the most vulnerable segments of the population, the elderly and the disabled.  Today, 39 million Americans, including 335,000 West Virginians, rely on Medicare to help provide for their medical needs.

Making the Case
Prescription Drug Use by, and Spending for, the Elderly, 1998 (numbers in millions)
 

Total

Elderly

Elderly as a Percent of the Total Population

Population

270.2

34.4

13%

Prescription Drugs Dispensed

2,732.7

932.7

34%

Prescription Drug Expenditures

$102,687.50

$42,899.20

42%

Source:  U.S. Census Bureau and data compiled for Families USA

In West Virginia, the average Medicare recipient has an annual income of just $10,700.  Of that amount, an estimated $2,100 goes to pay out-of-pocket medical expenses.

According to the National Institute of Health Care Management:

  • An increase in the number of prescriptions overall and a shift towards the use of costlier drugs continued in 2000 to be the central forces driving up retail prescription drug spending; and
  • Uninsured, non-elderly persons in 1997 spent an average of $30.76 for a prescription compared to an average of $9.96 for an insured person buying a brand name drug.

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