Medicare plan increases use of costly drugs

Interesting article, but not really surprising.

Essentially the Medicare Part D drug benefit was to provide drug coverage to a segment of the population that didn't have it (or acceptable coverage) beforehand...

I wonder if the study shows there was increase in drug utilization (meaning more people used a drug more often than before) or if there was increased cost per prescription (meaning people shifted from a lower cost drug to a higher cost drug while still using the same amount/type of drug)...

This will take years to sort out the ramifications of this legislation...