Seema Verma, the new administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, recently praised Medicare's prescription drug benefit for giving seniors access to affordable medicines, saying she was "thankful" for the program.
There's a lot to be thankful for. Medicare Part D, as the drug benefit is known, provides seniors with huge discounts on medicines, enabling them to live healthier, longer lives. A recent University of Illinois study found that Part D has reduced elderly mortality by 2.2 percent annually since 2006. That's good news for the more than 41 million Americans who currently rely on the program for prescription drug coverage.
