Medicare Part D Beneficiaries: Beware of Changes in Price Structure for 2008
Consumer's Union Tells Seniors What to Look for During Open Enrollment of Medicare
The open enrollment period starts November 15th, and the Consumer's Union press release indicates that people on Medicare should review the plan costs at that time so that they can change plans if necessary. The Consumer's union press release also remarked that some plans may appear to be staying the same in terms of the cost of the plan but the cost of a typical regime of five medications often used by people on Medicare has increased, making the overall cost to the individual who is supposedly taking advantage of the plan also increase.
To evaluate the possible increase in costs, researchers at Consumer's Union took data from zip codes in California, New York, Illinois, Texas and Florida, and evaluated the difference between prices of the plan and the patient co-payment on five typical medications in the year 2007 and the advertised prices for the year 2008. Eighty two percent of the plans in each of the five states showed an increase for the projected prices in 2008. Twenty five percent of the plans studied showed an increase of twenty five percent or more for the expected January of 2008 costs, stated the Consumer's Union press release.
One plan - Envision RxPlus Gold - showed an increase of sixty percent in the projected cost for New York (the highest in increase in cost), and also the highest projected increase for Florida and California, tied with Blue MedicareRx in Texas for the projected increase in cost, and came in as second behind Blue MedicareRx in Illinois, according to the Consumer's Union press release.
Bill Vaughn, senior policy analyst for Consumer's Union, stated in the press release: "Lower monthly payments for a plan can be dangerously deceptive for a senior who doesn't also check on the cost of the drugs they are taking under that plan." Vaughn urged Medicare recipients to check the costs against the Medicare website at http://www.medicare.gov.
According to Vaughn, the most cost effective prescription plan program in 2007 for four of the five states studied was run by HealthSpring.
Consumer's Union publishes Consumer Reports.
Source
November 9th press release of Consumer's Union
URL:
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/11-09-2007/0004702269&EDATE=
Published by Flossie Cruz
I am a jack of all trades having worked in education, finance, production, and manufacturing. Currently, I work at a zipper manufacturing company in Rolling Meadows by day and prowl the internet by night. View profile
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1 Comments
Post a CommentThanks for the heads up. It is so sad that seniors have spent the majority of their lives working and paying taxes, or raising childen while the spouse works, and have to live in fear from year to year about their Medicare benefits.