Prescription Drugs

This Fact Sheet looks at prescription drug use among midlife Medicaid enrollees, examines a set of baseline trends (who fills prescriptions, where they live, and how often they fill prescriptions), the types of drugs midlife Medicaid enrollees fill, and the impact of state expansion of Medicaid on prescription drug use among this population.

This Spotlight examines the existing State Pharmaceutical Assistance Programs (SPAPs) and their characteristics and highlights how specific federal prescription drug reforms could generate savings for SPAPs and provide an opportunity for states to revisit these important programs.

Prescription drug price increases affect consumers, employers, private insurers, and taxpayers who fund programs like Medicare and Medicaid.

Older adults are concerned about high prescription drug prices, but few know about the new law enacted in 2022 to bring down drug prices for consumers.