Explosion in the medicine chest.

This overview ties together the various articles by relating them to the current debate on whether, and how, the Medicare program can add outpatient drugs as a covered benefit. The unifying theme for most of the articles is that they outline possible ways of administering a drug benefit and discuss policy issues that will arise, based on Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) experiences or State government experiences in efforts to administer existing drug benefits in a cost-effective manner while attempting to ensure the best medical outcomes. The articles provide information about drug utilization among Medicare beneficiaries with and without insurance coverage, among Medicaid beneficiaries, and among subpopulations for whom drug therapies can be considered essential.