Transcript SPAP Chartbook Updated - The Commonwealth Fund

Rizzo, Fox, Trail, and Crystal, State Pharmacy Assistance Programs: A Chartbook—Updated and Revised, January 2007
Total SPAP Enrollment as a Percentage of Medicare Enrollment, 1999 to 2003
•
Nationwide, SPAPs provided prescription drug coverage to a small—but growing—percentage of
Medicare beneficiaries.
•
The percentage of all Medicare beneficiaries nationwide accounted for by SPAP enrollees increased from 2% in
1999 to 3.7% in 2003. This was because of increased enrollment in existing SPAPs and the creation of new SPAPs.
•
The slow growth of enrollment and lower eligibility levels of new programs established between 2000 and 2001
resulted in a lower proportion of Medicare beneficiaries in SPAP states covered by these programs in 2001 than in
the previous two years. However, from 2002 to 2003, the proportion of Medicare beneficiaries in SPAP states
increased, consistent with increased enrollment in the new programs and also higher income limits from 2002 to
2003 in many states (see Chart 4-4).
THE
COMMONWEALTH
FUND