It’s Medicare reenrollment time again, which means everyone with Medicare gets to look at how much they’ll spend, what they get and the choices that are available to them for the next year. The money, of course, is crazy. Everybody pays at least $202 a month but higher income people pay more, with a cost that tops out at $689 a month (but tops out at $689 a month for incomes above $750,000 a year, even for incomes in the millions or billions.) There are copays and deductibles on top of all that. Starting yesterday and until December, people with Medicare have a whole bunch of choices about so-called Medicare Advantage Plans, which often have different benefits and certain extras, which you get if you accept a limited network of doctors and hospitals; and Medicare supplemental plans, which insure you against having to pay copays and deductibles, from some to most of the time.
It’s a good thing Medicare is for older people, because it takes a lifetime of experience to figure this stuff out, and for each person to figure out what works best for them. My guess is that most people are a little blinded by the light, and pick a plan based on what their mother has or had, or because of a flashy advertisement. Most people never notice the actual cost, because the government takes that money directly out of everyone’s social security check. Easy come, easy go, or something like that. I wonder what people would do and think if they had to lay out a couple of hundred bucks a month in cash but only got an insurance card for that money — and nothing tangible. Nothing real.
AND THEN THERE IS Medicare Part D. On top of all that other stuff, Medicare recipients also have to buy a part D plan, which pays for prescription drugs, and costs between $13 and $285 a month on top of what Medicare Part B costs, with an additional charge up to $91 a month for people who have higher incomes, but the extra charge maxes out at incomes of $500,000 a year.
CMS is claiming that the cost for Medicare Part D dropped for most people, by about $1 a month or more.
I guess I’m not most people. My Medicare Part D plan is going a up 210 percent, so I’m switching to a cheaper plan, which is “only” going up 59 percent. These are for plans with a $700 deductible, plans which Medicare requires me to have but I don’t use, because, so far, I take no regular medication (and am darn good about diet and exercise). I’m hoping to keep it that way. That said, I’m paying over a hundred dollars a year to get someone to pay for drugs I don’t buy, don’t use and don’t want. Whoops. At least they don’t make me pay for TV, which I don’t watch and don’t want either.
The Feds claim that cheaper plans are available, and that everyone has access to a plan that costs less than $6 a month, but in Rhode Island, there are no plans costing less than $6 a month available to me.
Viewed from one perspective, Medicare Part D is intelligent social insurance, which pools the pharmaceutical costs of a population and allows people with few needs to subsidize those with more costly needs, so everyone can afford what they need. For me, the theory goes, if I participate today, this insurance will be there for me tomorrow, should I ever develop the need for costly pharmaceuticals.
Except. Except the pharmaceutical industry is endlessly engaged in manipulating the marketplace. They buy generic manufacturers and put them out of business, so low-cost medications disappear. They make deals with insurers who get kickbacks from drug makers and use their lobbying power to get government programs to pay inflated prices for already expensive medications. All of that inflates drug prices, and those inflated prices get passed on to Medicare recipients in the form of higher Medicare Part D premiums. Which every Medicare recipient is effectively required to pay. It’s not slavery exactly. More like a kind of US government required extortion. What a racket!
A real government in a functional democracy would be focused on busting this kind of industry trust. Not promoting it. Both political parties are complicit, and you better believe that both parties are taking campaign contributions from pharma.
It’s pay to play. They pay. We get played.
That’s crazy.
PS It’s almost flu shot time. Even the Governor got immunized. Please a shot in the next three weeks. I’m going October 27. Don’t forget.
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