United States Seniors: All Medicare Part D Donut-Hole Talk Is Pure Bunk

I don't know where to begin this post because the Internet is full of so much incorrect Medicare Part D donut hole information, especially during so-called Medicare open enrollment time. I covered some of the bunk recently concerning the propaganda put out by the Obama administration. But some of the deceit comes from years old Democratic Party propaganda having nothing to do with President Obama and some of it is just totally wrong for no reason that I can find. So let me just throw out some random facts as of October 24, 2014 and add to this list as time goes on:

1. Cancer drugs are typically covered under Part B, not Part D. Stories you see about cancer drugs -- such as one that allegedly ran recently on 60 Minutes -- probably have nothing to do with Part D, never mind the donut hole.
2. Just because the government does not negotiate for Part D drug prices, that does not mean there is no negotiation. The beauty of Part D -- the reason that it is costing half of what the Congressional Budget Office originally estimated -- is that drugstores and wholesalers do the negotiation, not the people that brought you thousand-dollar toilet seats
3. Costs and co-pays in Part D are rising because the donut hole is closing. It's just simple math. It has nothing to do with blood-sucking insurance companies even though there may be such a thing as a blood-sucking insurance company. It's just insurance math; if the insurance has to cover more costs and is forbidden from setting deductibility threshholds, prices rise.
4. Congress has reconsidered the Part D law every year since it was passed in 2003 (and made a major change in 2010, changing the donut hole rules). There is constant left wing whining about why Congress doesn't change the law. It has, multiple times in 10 years. The issue is that some far-left-wing Democrats want to repeal the law and even most Democratic congress people think that's a crazy idea.

Here’s the good news: less than 10% of the people on Medicare are affected by the donut hole and only a few percent are totally affected by it.

• If you are on Social Security Extra Help (that is, you are low income) you are not affected by the donut hole at all… ever.
• I know the statistics are of little solace if you are of higher income and in that relatively small group affected the donut hole coverage gap but you have gap insurance available to you and the VA if you are a vet (and other good programs in many states).