MediCare Open Enrollment is now until 12/7/13

As many of you recollect, the opportunity to shop for or consider changing MediCare Part D coverage is every year at this time, from mid-October until December 7th.

For those of you who are new to MediCare, a bit of back story.

MediCare is a federal entitlement program written into legislation by the Johnson ("LBJ") adminstration, in response to commercial insurance companies dropping coverage of seniors due to their likelihood of needing medical care or treatment.  Part A covers hospital based (inpatient) expenses such as surgery and hospitalization.  Part B covers office  based (outpatient) care such as doctor visits, labs or XRays.

Part D was enacted during the George W. Bush administration to help to provide MediCare coverage of prescription drugs: until then, it was cash-and-carry unless you had pension benefits that provided such coverage.  Part of the Affordable Care Act under the Obama administration involves reducing the so-called "donut hole".  This is an amount of money you have to pony up if you spend a lot of money on medications before the end of the calendar year.  The donut hole will gradually close to zero over the next decade.

This Medicare Plan Finder link allows you to start comparison shopping Part D plans starting with your zip code so that you are only looking at plans offered where you live.  You can also (if you want to) search out plans that cover the medicines you take by entering each medicine by name.  If you want, you can also narrow the search to specific amounts you want for premiums, by strength of patient reviews and a number of other factors.  :You can then examine all the plans that fit your selection criteria and check them out further if you like.  You can also enroll from this site.

All in all, selecting a Part D plan or deciding whether you want to change yours or not is made pretty straightforward and the format is not much different than shopping on Amazon.

A few tips:

• Medicare has nothing to do with Covered California which is an online insurance market under the Affordable Care Act for California for people not on Medicare.
• If a medicine you take doesn't seem to be covered, see if other medicines that are in the same class are.  Medicines in the same class work the same way, and can generally be substituted without any problems.
• Most drugs are generically available.  Only 10% of new drugs are really a new kind, or superior to older less expensive drugs of the same class.  Don't let cost get in the way without asking us if you have lower cost options to choose from.
• These tips are especially important if you use inhalers or injectable medicines since they are often very expensive.

Secure Horizons HMO Part D plan has gotten much smoother to work with over the last two years, so we are accepting it as a Part D plan.  Specialist offices have also gotten a lot smoother at working with them which makes this a much better option than when it first rolled out.

Please don't hesitate to ask if we can help you!