Medicare spent $300 million on immune globulin in 2004, its 10th biggest drug expenditure.

The premiums, deductibles and out-of-pocket expenditures will all increase rapidly, tied to increases in per capita drug expenditures under Medicare.

Dr. Roberts, the health ministry consultant, did his own study in 1996 of drug expenditures as a percentage of gross domestic product.

The elderly bear a disproportionate burden: they account for 13 percent of the population but more than a third of drug expenditures.

In addition, the availability of new generic drugs in a number of chronic therapies contributed to a minimal increase in drug expenditures overall in 2011.

A Government plan to equip 52,000 pharmacies with computers to keep track of the medications and drug expenditures of 32 million Medicare beneficiaries has aroused concern about privacy.

The Federal Government plans to equip 52,000 pharmacies with computer terminals and programs to keep track of medications and drug expenditures of the nation's 32 million Medicare beneficiaries.

The drugs, genetically engineered versions of a human hormone that stimulates production of oxygen-carrying red blood cells, constitute Medicare's biggest drug expenditure.

The study by the National Academy of Sciences found that its approach had "meaningfully reduced drug expenditures without demonstrable adverse effects on quality."

In the past, Rep. Holt has offered legislation to help seniors by including additional drug expenditures towards the "true out-of-pocket" costs that determine when a beneficiary is eligible for catastrophic coverage.