Medicaid Patients' Access To New Drugs

Prologue: Prescription drugs have demonstrated an awesome capacity to ameliorate pain and wage war against infectious diseases. But, unlike most other medical services and products, outpatient drugs are generally not covered either by private health insurance or, until its new catastrophic benefit becomes effective. Medicare. About two-thirds of the population pays for its drugs directly out of pocket Only Medicaid, among the large public health financing programs, has provided outpatient drug coverage to eligible beneficiaries. As Medicaid programs have faced increasing pressure to moderate the growth of expenditures, though, some states have created drug formularies to restrict the products for which they will reimburse pharmacists. In this paper, Henry Grabowski addresses the question of how formularies affect the availability of drugs proven safe and efficacious by the Food and Drug Administration. Grabowski received his doctorate in economics from Princeton University in 1967. Since 1972, he has been...