Two good articles today about how seniors are continue to transform Medicare Part D by making better choices with better information. The first by Carol Campbell of the Newark Star-Ledger (hometown paper)
Options are available for seniors in medi-gap
Monday, August 14, 2006
BY CAROL ANN CAMPBELL
Star-Ledger Staff
Ruth Gross plans to cancel her AARP Medicare Part D drug plan and select a different one for next year. This time, she will choose a plan without a “doughnut hole.”
You can read the rest of the article here:
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index.ssf?/base/news-8/1155530782173740.xml&coll=1&thispage=3
Ruth is not alone. Seniors are likely to shift to higher premium plans with more coverage and begin to be even more focused on the relative cost and value of the medicines they are on. My guess is that a larger percentage of seniors will choose Medicare plans with gap coverage or joint managed care plans while the increasing transparency in prices and shift to generic will move drug and premium prices down further. Armed with information about generic and brand alternatives, price competition will become fierce. Read the article in the San Francisco Chronicle about how seniors are adjusting to and learning from their Medicare Part D experience.
A ‘hole’ lot of frustration
Gap in Medicare prescription drug plan leaves some seniors with a $2,850 surprise
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/08/15/BUGMSKIHCF1.DTL
Remember when the usual suspects in the heatlh care policy establishment deemed part D as doomed because seniors were too senile to make intelligent choices and that the program would wind up being MORE expensive than projected and how seniors would raise hell in October right before the election as they hit the donut hole?
Seniors are discovering that shopping and saving makes more sense than the pundits who predicted they couldn’t do either under Part D
PS. Mark McClellan just announced that the average premium for Medicare Part D plans will be $8 less than it was last year. He applauds continued plan competition and âinformed choicesâ by beneficiaries
