eHealth Survey: Reducing Prescription Drug Costs Seen as Key to Ensuring Medicare's Future
- Today's beneficiaries think they may be among the last Americans to receive
Medicare : 23 percent don't believeMedicare will last throughout their own lifetime, while an additional 41 percent believe the program may not survive their children's generation. Only 19 percent of respondents are confident theMedicare program will survive for generations to come. - Controlling drug costs is seen by many as key to the program's survival: 73 percent of respondents say that caps should be placed on prescription drug costs to help ensure the future of the
Medicare program. 25 percent believe doctors and hospitals should be paid less; 23 percent say that Americans not yet eligible forMedicare should be taxed more to pay for the program. - Reduced benefits and lower doctor participation scare beneficiaries: When asked what worries them most about the future of
Medicare , 68 percent cite the threat of reduced benefits, while 58 percent cite the prospect of doctors no longer acceptingMedicare patients. - Beneficiaries love their
Medicare coverage and think more Americans should have access: Only 6 percent of respondents express dissatisfaction with theirMedicare coverage; 41 percent say that all Americans should haveMedicare -like coverage (an increase from 34 percent last August); an additional 11 percent say that at least people age 55 and older should be eligible forMedicare .
Read eHealth's complete survey analysis.
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