One could argue whether it was intentional or not, but it seems as though our society has chosen the elderly population as more ‘deserving’ of public medical assistance, over middle and lower class Americans. Personally, I see this as being an artifact of how the health insurance system and medicare evolved and not an intentional decision.

While I believe that elderly populations are certainly deserving of public health care, I think that our society as a whole has a hard time of grasping death and that this is reflected in the proportion of our government spending in medicare. Perhaps death, and the natural ending of life is something that our society should become more acquainted with before we start to redesign a new health care system.

Its fascinating that this NBER paper shows that while spending does increase, the Rx coverage serves as a substitute for other forms of more expensive care. Pick the weaker poison.

Coincidentally, right after I read this I saw a Prilosec OTC ad in Time magazine describing how OTC drugs don’t count toward one’s initial Part D coverage and therefore reduce the amount you spend up to $2,400, when the coverage gap begins for most Part D plans. This kind of “outside-the-coverage” spending not accounted for within the scope of Part D research may also affect health outcomes and decrease the use of higher-cost medical services.