How will the Medicare Part D benefit change under current law and leading proposals? Issue brief (Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation) Cubanski, Juliette, author. Neuman, Tricia, author. Medicare Part D -- economics Drug Costs Since 2006, Medicare beneficiaries have had access to prescription drug coverage through Part D, where private plan sponsors contract with Medicare to provide the drug benefit. In recent years, policymakers have expressed concerns about the absence of a hard cap on out-of-pocket spending for Part D enrollees, the significant increase in Medicare spending for enrollees with high drug costs, and the relatively weak financial incentives faced by Part D plan sponsors to control high drug costs. Recent proposals aim to address these concerns, including the Trump Administration's Fiscal Year 2020 budget, the bipartisan prescription drug bill passed by the Senate Finance Committee, and H.R.3, the prescription drug bill recently announced by Speaker Pelosi (D-CA). This brief describes how the Medicare Part D benefit will change in 2020 under current law and proposed changes that would affect what beneficiaries, plans, manufacturers, and Medicare pay for drug costs under Part D in the future. San Francisco, CA : Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, October 2019 Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, issuing body. Technical Report Text Illustrations 1 online resource (1 PDF file (6 pages)) nlm:nlmuid-101767693-pdf 101767693 http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101767693 English United States Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further use of the material is subject to CC BY license. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0