Consumer choice on drugs: Medicare and medications

In their essay, Richard L. Kaplan and Richard W. Olson examine one of the most important problems in consumer choice in the current health care delivery system: choice of prescription drugs and medications in the recently enacted prescription drug benefits of Medicare. Their essay analyzes the new benefits and what their implications are for consumer choice. The authors conclude that the effect of all of the consumer choices is inevitably consumer confusion. This predicament is made worse when one considers that consumers' future drug needs are not always predictable. Thus, a drug plan--be it in Medicare Part D or one of the alternatives--may be perfectly appropriate today and be totally inadequate in two years, even assuming no structural changes in the plans themselves or in the cost of medications. Clearly, under the new Medicare Part D program, consumer choices will abound. Whether consumers find this array of options comforting or disconcerting very much remains an open question.