This Policy Paper combines the work from current projects of the Maine Rural Health Research Center (MRHRC) and the Rural Health Panel of the Rural Policy Research Institute (RUPRI) to provide a statement of specific rural considerations and objectives for any proposal that would add a prescription drug benefit to the Medicare program. Our intent is to establish a framework for assessing the effects of proposals on rural beneficiaries. The framework is applied to three proposals currently being considered by the 106th Congress.
This report was written by Health Panel Members: Andrew Coburn, Erika Ziller, Charles Fluharty, J. Patrick Hart, A. Clinton MacKinney, Timothy McBride, Keith Mueller, Rebecca Slifkin, Mary Wakefield; published June 30, 2000.
