I suspect that John may be the only person on this forum to be able to answer this.
On CBS news this evening they were showing how seniors are so confused about the new Drug Plan they may need to enroll in between now and next May. It sounds like another big business rip off. Seniors have as many as 50 insurance companies to choose from and something like 60% of seniors are unable to decide on which is best for them.
They talk about government bureaucracy. Sounds like this is worse. Our Drug plan in Ontario is simple. You pay the first $100/calendar year in prescription drug costs. After that all I pay is $6.11 for each prescription. ( Pharmacist Fee)
I found this in the Daily Camera, though it is reprinted from the Providence Journal;
http://www.dailycamera.com/bdc/opinion/a...63,00.html
Full-time form-filling
October 29, 2005
Medicare Part D. Are you ready?
Taxpayers will be paying an arm and a leg for a prescription-drug benefit that delivers only a modest subsidy to most Medicare beneficiaries. The drug companies and insurers are the big winners here. We've railed about this before.
But we would have thought that for all the money taxpayers are spending, the 42 million Medicare beneficiaries would have enjoyed an elegantly simple system for obtaining their medications. Simple it is not.
Ahhh, choice. Most people who participate must choose a private company to manage their benefit. The number of companies will range from 11 in Alaska to 20 in Texas. The premiums will range, too, although they are expected to average $32 a month. There will be different annual deductibles (though no higher than $250). For the next $2,000 in drug costs, the beneficiary will pay part — could be 20 percent, could be 25 percent. Some of the plans will have different pay schedules for generics, preferred brand-name drugs and other brand names.
Once drug spending reaches $2,250, the patient has reached the "doughnut hole." That means that he or she will pay the next $2,850 in drug costs entirely out of pocket. After that, the catastrophic coverage kicks in, and the plan pays up to 95 percent of prescription costs.
When the New Year arrives, the process of choosing starts all over again. The premiums will certainly go up. And participating companies may change the deal or leave the program altogether.
People who have outside sources of drug coverage, such as a company plan, may or may not get help with the doughnut hole. Depends on the plan. And low-income beneficiaries have other arrangements, where Medicare pays more or almost all of the drug bills.
A member of a Medicare HMO may or may not get prescription coverage through that plan. We speak of the Medicare+Choice plans (or Medicare Part C). They are now called Medicare Health Plans. All Medicare Health Plans (except for the private fee-for-service, or PFFS, plans) must offer at least one option that includes prescription-drug coverage. Beneficiaries who select a plan without that option may then choose among the stand-alone drug plans.
People can start signing up on Nov. 15. The program starts on Jan. 1.
One of the complications in trying to choose among the many options is that beneficiaries have to predict which drugs and how much of them they'll need in the coming year. Armed with that guess, they can then sort through perhaps over a dozen plans available in their state.
It's a good thing most of the Medicare beneficiaries are retired. They'll need endless hours to sort out the different possibilities. Of course, they need not join the program. Should all else fail, there's still Canada, at least for now. Where life is simpler and a lot healthier.
The Providence Journal
They seem to have the same idea as you Keith.
We watched this on the news last night. Looking ahead as always we decided we need to make a helluva lot of money to survive.
The one thing that really got me is with this is you lock in for a year by said date or are penalised and even then you don't know if your local pharmacy will accept the plan you choose, the plan may or may not cover your medication, if it does and decides not to it gives you 60 days notice, but you're still locked in for the year.
Basically the way to choose is pin plan chart to back of door and throw a dart at it.
( Make sure door is closed, if you live in America and are eligible for medicare, believe me, you can't afford to hit anybody in the head with a dart.)
It's a bloody rip off and the government should be ashamed. I guess the guy in charge is like the guy from FEMA. No qualies, just a buddy.
Great Idea why cannot we have a drug plan like Canada's?
Instead of this Kafka like disaster designed by Bush.
Letters to the NYTimes by PHD's say they cannot understand it!!!
So how in heavens name can the average Joe or Jane make any sense of it.
If you do not sign up in a plan by May 15/06 your monthly premium of about $34 will go up 1 percent per month or 12 percent per year untill you join a plan.
Medicare is forced to accept the prices the plan owners charge for drugs it is prohibited to to find cheaper drugs on the open market~ this is a new restriction by the Bush Regime.
It is now ,it seems,in the USA the Government is the the enemy of "WE the People".
I have no doubt Bush's ratings will sink lower as people get more info on his "Plan".