Medigap revenue could drop $2.5 billion.(Health Insurers)

FEDERAL REGULATORS SAY the Medicare prescription drug benefit program could hurt insurers that sell private Medicare supplement insurance.

The new drug benefit could affect 1.9 million U.S. residents who already have Medigap drug benefits, and it might cost the Medigap insurers as much as $2.5 billion in revenue in 2006, regulators write in a discussion accompanying proposed Medicare drag benefit program regulations.

Medigap sellers reported a total of about $17 billion in Medigap revenue in 2002, according to the National Association of Insurance Commissio