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The Medium-Term Impact of Medicare Part D on Pharmaceutical Prices

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  • Mark G. Duggan
  • Fiona Scott Morton

Abstract

Medicare Part D began coverage of prescription drugs in 2006. Using data from the first year of the program we found that Part D reduced pharmaceutical prices for Medicare recipients, with these effects driven by enrollees previously without drug coverage. In this paper we extend our analysis through 2009, the fourth year of the program, to investigate whether plans continued to extract price concessions in return for favorable formulary placement, or if consumer inertia or other factors caused prices to bounce back after their initial decline. We find price declines persisted through at least the third year of the program.

Suggested Citation

  • Mark G. Duggan & Fiona Scott Morton, 2011. "The Medium-Term Impact of Medicare Part D on Pharmaceutical Prices," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(3), pages 387-392, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:101:y:2011:i:3:p:387-92
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Darius Lakdawalla & Wesley Yin, 2015. "Insurers’ Negotiating Leverage and the External Effects of Medicare Part D," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 97(2), pages 314-331, May.
    2. Mark Duggan & Patrick Healy & Fiona Scott Morton, 2008. "Providing Prescription Drug Coverage to the Elderly: America's Experiment with Medicare Part D," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 22(4), pages 69-92, Fall.
    3. Mark Duggan & Fiona M. Scott Morton, 2006. "The Distortionary Effects of Government Procurement: Evidence from Medicaid Prescription Drug Purchasing," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 121(1), pages 1-30.
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    Cited by:

    1. Herr, A. & Suppliet, M., 2011. "Co-Payment Exemptions and Reference Prices: an Empirical Study of Pharmaceutical Prices in Germany," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 11/18, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    2. Powell, David & Pacula, Rosalie Liccardo & Taylor, Erin, 2020. "How increasing medical access to opioids contributes to the opioid epidemic: Evidence from Medicare Part D," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    3. Sanzenbacher, Geoffrey T. & Wettstein, Gal, 2020. "Drug insurance and the strategic behavior of drug manufacturers: Evergreening and generic entry after Medicare Part D," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    4. Suppliet, Moritz & Herr, Annika, 2016. "Cost-Sharing and Drug Pricing Strategies : Introducing Tiered Co-Payments in Reference Price Markets," Other publications TiSEM 4d692f0e-8577-4392-b413-2, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    5. Kate Ho & Joseph Hogan & Fiona Scott Morton, 2017. "The impact of consumer inattention on insurer pricing in the Medicare Part D program," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 48(4), pages 877-905, December.
    6. Baker, Laurence C. & Bundorf, M. Kate & Kessler, Daniel P., 2015. "Does health plan generosity enhance hospital market power?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 54-62.
    7. Andrew L. Hicks & Ernst R. Berndt & Richard G. Frank, 2024. "Auditing the prescription drug consumer price index in a changing marketplace," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(8), pages 1793-1810, August.
    8. Chorniy, Anna & Miller, Daniel & Tang, Tilan, 2020. "Mergers in Medicare Part D: Assessing market power, cost efficiencies, and bargaining power," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    9. Keith M. Marzilli Ericson, 2014. "Consumer Inertia and Firm Pricing in the Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Insurance Exchange," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 6(1), pages 38-64, February.
    10. Robin McKnight & Jonathan Reuter & Eric Zitzewitz, 2012. "Insurance as Delegated Purchasing: Theory and Evidence from Health Care," NBER Working Papers 17857, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Tianyan Hu & Sandra L. Decker & Shin-Yi Chou, 2017. "The impact of health insurance expansion on physician treatment choice: Medicare Part D and physician prescribing," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 17(3), pages 333-358, September.
    12. Hill, Nicholas & Wagner, Mathis, 2021. "Heterogeneous effects of consolidation on premiums in Medicare Part D," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).

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