Three Essays on Prescription Drug Insurance Benefit Design: The Effects of Prescription Drug Cost-Sharing on Health Spending, Compliance, and Health Outcome

In the past 15 years, national spending on prescription drugs has grown dramatically, outpacing the growth rate of hospital spending and physician spending in the same period. In response, many health insurance plans have reduced the generosity of their prescription drug benefits by imposing increasingly higher cost-sharing on patients' side for their pharmaceutical uses. This research paper contains in-depth evaluations of the impacts of prescription drug insurance benefit design on health spending, consumers' use of medical care, compliance with drug regimens, and health outcomes.