Beatrice Braun, AARP Board Member, testified before the House Energy and Commerce Committee concerning the need for a prescription drug benefit in Medicare.

The Medicare program is the nation's principal source of health benefits and a key source of financial protection for older Americans and those with disabilities. As approaches to updating Medicare are being examined, it is essential that the Medicare benefit package be modernized. In particular, AARP believes that it is time to add an outpatient prescription drug benefit in recognition of the changing health care technology that has made prescription drugs an increasingly important--now central--component of modern medical care over the last two decades.

Private health benefit plans throughout the nation generally have kept pace with the advances in their benefits for workers--recognizing the longer term economic and health care value of providing prescription drug coverage. Medicare should do the same. Other major sources of prescription drug coverage for Medicare beneficiaries, such as Medigap and Medicare+Choice, are proving indequate or undependable. The rising cost of prescription drugs, their large and growing role in good medical care, and the gaps in Medicare beneficiaries' current coverage for medications reinforce the need for a prescription drug benefit that extends to all Medicare beneficiaries.

In the testimony, AARP describes some fundamental features for developing a prescription drug benefit, including:

• It must be available nationwide;
  
• It should be a voluntary benefit--allowing those with alternative sources of coverage to keep their current benefits if they so choose;
  
• It must be affordable with reasonable premiums and cost-sharing, and priced to encourage broad participation in the benefit;
  
• It should include a defined benefit, cost containment mechanisms, and additional protections for low-income beneficiaries; and
  
• It must include the right to timely appeal and external review of coverage denials and other features to maintain and improve quality.