[Sidney Lanier]

chacam and efrahin: The first year my wife and I had Part D coverage, we were with a company that was so uniformly awful in its coverage and attitude that I vowed to leave them at the end of the year. Can't remember the name of it; we had taken it because it came recommended by the agent who handles our Mutual of Omaha Part F Medicare Supplement Plan (that is excellent). They were so despicable (too long to go into details on a public post...) that before the open enrollment period I began researching other plans. BTW, the monthly premium on that plan was about $46, going up to about $55 this year.

I researched like crazy, including making a trip to our local Office for the Aging here in New York State. Turned out that by that time I knew more than the volunteer I met with, who explained that people were coming in to her with shopping bags full of literature and advertising that they'd received in the mail and they had no idea what to do with it. Most did not have Internet access which is virtually obligatory today to deal with this stuff. All she could do was 'bandaid.' I ended up telling her that if I were around more (we travel a lot with my wife a travel agent AND we're snowbirds and so are in TV much of the year), I'd come and volunteer too. This is part of why I refer to Plan D as a boondoggle for the pharmaceutical and insurance industries and a horror for the very people it's supposed to help!

There is a tool on the Medicare.gov site that allows you to examine all the plans that are available in your area and to enter your prescriptions, and it then gives the out-of-pocket costs for each plan. In the end I did this for my wife and myself, and it turned out that a plan that was more favorable for me wasn't for her, and vice versa. So we have two different plans. Mine is called HealthSpring, with a deductible of $275 to meet, after which they will cover 75% of their negotiated costs for meds. So far I have no problem with the plan itself; I was just shocked that the cost of the generic I use was so high at Wal-Mart Pharmacy. That was my first prescription of the year (June); I had another recently for pain med following surgery two weeks ago. Interesting that the small independent pharmacy that I used filled it without my drug plan (didn't have the card with me when I went there straight from the surgery center) for about $24 and was told to bring the card back and they would rebill it to the insurance company. When I did they refunded me $19, meaning that the total cost of that generic drug was $5. Because of the $275 deductible, my plan has a pretty reasonable premium: $17/monthly (going up to $20/monthly because of switching to Florida residency).

To be frank, I have no idea what I will do for next year. So far I have no problem with my plan, but with a new ZIP code at TV rather than ours in NYS, there may be other offerings that are better for me. It's very individual. I use three eyedrops that are available only as non-generic and they are very expensive in any of the Part D plans; I am fortunate that my doctors ply me with samples of these drugs, because if not, I'd be spending a fortune for them and would probably end up in the 'donut hole.' Now, do you know about the donut hole? There's a point after which you've spent so much on prescription drugs that you suddenly have no coverage at all for several thousand dollars, and if you exceed that, after that point you then get covered under a catastrophic guideline.

Isn't Part D marvelous? Sorry to be a little sarcastic.... What a nightmare!!! If having been there and done that I can be of any specific help, please feel free to PM me.