Georgia Seniors Wary of Medicare Part D
From the Savannah Morning News:
Paying a monthly premium of about $32, as well as the first $250 of drug costs a year, doesn’t sound like affordable prescription drug coverage to Lula Mae Herron.
John Tomat’s first question for private plans: “Will they be allowed to make their premiums go up and down whenever they want?”
Bill Broker, executive director of Georgia Legal Services, said the Medicare prescription drug plan seems designed to fail. He said the pharmaceutical companies are going to benefit, especially because the plan prohibits Medicare from negotiating lower prices on drugs.
“It’s better than nothing,” Broker said. “But in my opinion it could have been much better.”
While no one will argue that the ability for Medicare to negotiate lower prescription prices wouldn’t be a huge benefit to the Medicare Part D Rx Drug program, I’m surprised that there is this much discontent about what the program does cover. For $30-35/month, an open enrollment prescription drug plan like this will provide huge cost savings for lots of seniors across the country. It may not provide the free lunch that everyone seems to be looking for, but it will help those that really need it.