A so-called financial advisor named Mark Miller that writes for the far-left-wing Reuters news wire of France (already on my Do Not Read list overall) puts out a lot of bad information about Medicare because of his or her political bias. For example, in a recent article (no link provided purposely), he or she includes this wording concerning the Part D donut hole:
"Next year the gap starts at $2,960 (up from $2,850 this year) and ends after you’ve spent $4,700 (up from $4,550 this year)."
The lower number is total retail cost of the drugs involved whereas the higher number is your total out of pocket spending minus the discount given by the pharmaceutical manufacturer while in the donut hole. Worst case, a person might spend about $3000 out of pocket before getting out of the donut hole, not the less than $2000 implied in this article. After exiting the hole, the beneficiary still pays 5% of the retail cost of the drug or drugs. Unfortunately that would also mean the person has a serious medical issue.
The good news is that less than 10% of the people on Medicare get into the donut hole and less than 1% spend all the way through it.
The even better news is that no one on Social Security Extra Help is affected by the donut hole at all so the donut hole is basically a middle and upper class issue. Most of the people affected have tertiary coverage through a former employer or union, buy a Part D plan that provides gap coverage, or get help from a state pharmaceutical assistance program (but not all states have one). The donut hole blah blah blah is pure Obama administration propaganda.
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