WASHINGTON, June 15 (UPI) -- U.S. Medicare officials reportedly are pressing companies to provide patients with additional prescription drug choices in the new Medicare benefit program.
Experts told The New York Times this would allow the new Medicare drug benefit program, which begins in January, to give beneficiaries access to a larger number and a wider variety of prescription drugs than are now available with private employer-sponsored health insurance.
Medicare will rely on private health plans to deliver drug benefits to the elderly and the disabled, the report said.
But insurers worry that Medicare officials' insistence on a robust drug benefit will make it hard for them to control the costs of the program.
However, Medicare officials say their policies will ensure all 41 million beneficiaries will have affordable access to the drugs they need, the Times said.
In private talks with insurers, the government has been insisting that they cover not just one or two drugs to treat each disease, but most or substantially all the drugs available for certain conditions.
