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That's the Way It Crumbles, Cookie-Wise

[begin rant]
The company I have prescription drug coverage with decided this October to discontinue all Part D drug plans after 2025. They probably informed me, but I missed it. It doesn't mention this anywhere on their webpage. When you click on Part D plans there, it sends you to Part C. That's sneaky. Only by luck did I discover this before the Dec 7th deadline.

This is exactly what I didn't want to spend the rest of my life doing every year---checking on changes to insurance policies. I rarely used the Part D insurance because for expensive drugs it was cheaper to buy from Canada without insurance, even counting the insurance premiums. I'd much rather contribute the monthly premiums to the Medicare fund than to insurance company executives.

I've wasted more than a day on this, but it would have been almost impossible without the Medicare.gov webpage that does the calculations for you. I wouldn't be surprised if CMS were asked to take that webpage down soon. I came up with a decent plan from WellCare. Never heard of it. It has a $0 premium, but that's no doubt just an enticement to enroll.

What happens if you're in a nursing home with no mental facilities left, and a current drug company drops your plan? I definitely wouldn't want any friends, relatives (or a spouse, or children if I had any) to waste their time on this.
[/end rant]
 
Nancy Hart said:
[begin rant]
The company I have prescription drug coverage with decided this October to discontinue all Part D drug plans after 2025. They probably informed me, but I missed it. It doesn't mention this anywhere on their webpage. When you click on Part D plans there, it sends you to Part C. That's sneaky. Only by luck did I discover this before the Dec 7th deadline.

This is exactly what I didn't want to spend the rest of my life doing every year---checking on changes to insurance policies. I rarely used the Part D insurance because for expensive drugs it was cheaper to buy from Canada without insurance, even counting the insurance premiums. I'd much rather contribute the monthly premiums to the Medicare fund than to insurance company executives.

I've wasted more than a day on this, but it would have been almost impossible without the Medicare.gov webpage that does the calculations for you. I wouldn't be surprised if CMS were asked to take that webpage down soon. I came up with a decent plan from WellCare. Never heard of it. It has a $0 premium, but that's no doubt just an enticement to enroll.

What happens if you're in a nursing home with no mental facilities left, and a current drug company drops your plan? I definitely wouldn't want any friends, relatives (or a spouse, or children if I had any) to waste their time on this.
[/end rant]
Click to expand...
American health care is a mess. Canadian drugs are cheaper for several reasons: 1) The Canadian government negotiates with Pharma and gets deals but limits the formulary, so not all drugs available on this side of the border are available there., 2) There may be some subsidy built into the drug system from the government, and 3) Canada has a "Pass Through" law that allows the sale of drugs through Canada to other countries without any regulation so what you buy may not be at all what Canadians get, and there may not be any active ingredients in the drugs sold at all as Canada doesn't even look at drugs sold to other countries through them. The drugs purchased could, of course, be the same as are sold in Canada but it is not guaranteed.
 
Nancy Hart said:
The two things I've ordered through Canada are either legit, or the placebo effect has taken over, which is even better. :)
Click to expand...
6e3ef179f26c71b19ab7b2e18499892c.jpg
placebo-cartoon.jpg
 
It is interesting how effective3 placebos can be. You can see it in the commercials that are on TV. In one recently for hot flashes during menopause, the medication was ~60% effective, but the placebo was ~40% effective, so the drug was actually only 20% more effective than the placebo. Placebo effect is why using placebos in drug trials is now required.
 
Looks like it made the news 2 weeks ago---Anthem. I don't think I got that email. It will be interesting if all of the companies decide to drop Part D.

 
Nancy Hart said:
Looks like it made the news 2 weeks ago---Anthem. I don't think I got that email. It will be interesting if all of the companies decide to drop Part D.

Click to expand...
They want to push everyone into a part C plan instead. Maybe they get more profit there or perhaps it is easier to maintain. I really don't know. Sorry @Nancy Hart .
 
Don Alaska said:
They want to push everyone into a part C plan instead. Maybe they get more profit there or perhaps it is easier to maintain. I really don't know. Sorry @Nancy Hart .
Click to expand...
I notice the TV commercials are pushing dual eligible coverage a lot this year. Those plans have almost double the profit margin of regular Part C plans. Medicaid is the first provider and the insurance company is secondary.
 
A letter came 2 days ago from my doc's practice about a new website (sponsored by AARP UHC, so I took it with a grain of salt) to help choose a Part D drug plan. Wasted yet another day. Long story short the Medicare website is not quite accurate. I knew something was fishy about a $0 premium plan that exceeded the out-of-pocket limit ($2100) with just one Rx, unless they are totally ripping off Medicare. This website shows the same $0 plan, but with very large out-of-pocket costs due to non-coverage (not in formulary, which the Medicare site apparently assumes).

If things were normal, I'd still just choose the $0 premium, use it as a place-holder for a year for inexpensive generic Rx(s), so I don't get penalized for not having coverage, and still order from Canada with no insurance. But things are not normal.

The Canadian Pharmacy, that I've used for 20 years, has become extremely slow on shipping. They always shop around all over the world to get the lowest price, so they are trying to find a place to minimize tariffs. I called them and they shipped the next day with a hefty tariff of 35% from mean old Canada (just kidding). At least they state how much the tariff is so if/when the SCOTUS strikes down the tariffs maybe folks will be able to get a refund (from the US, not Canada).

FWIW, I'm going with a plan with a $71 premium with HealthSpring that covers my Rx(s). Looking forward to doing all this again next year (not).

In case anyone is interested, the AARP website:.. https://compare.healthcompare.com/
 
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Nancy Hart said:
[begin rant]
The company I have prescription drug coverage with decided this October to discontinue all Part D drug plans after 2025. They probably informed me, but I missed it. It doesn't mention this anywhere on their webpage. When you click on Part D plans there, it sends you to Part C. That's sneaky. Only by luck did I discover this before the Dec 7th deadline.

This is exactly what I didn't want to spend the rest of my life doing every year---checking on changes to insurance policies. I rarely used the Part D insurance because for expensive drugs it was cheaper to buy from Canada without insurance, even counting the insurance premiums. I'd much rather contribute the monthly premiums to the Medicare fund than to insurance company executives.

I've wasted more than a day on this, but it would have been almost impossible without the Medicare.gov webpage that does the calculations for you. I wouldn't be surprised if CMS were asked to take that webpage down soon. I came up with a decent plan from WellCare. Never heard of it. It has a $0 premium, but that's no doubt just an enticement to enroll.

What happens if you're in a nursing home with no mental facilities left, and a current drug company drops your plan? I definitely wouldn't want any friends, relatives (or a spouse, or children if I had any) to waste their time on this.
[/end rant]
Click to expand...

Nurses and some doctors are leaving the profession because of the medical system problems in many areas.
The way things are going now, many seniors are in the street due to cost of owning a home.
 
Nine rural hospitals in Georgia have closed since 2010, five just recently, including the one my parents most often used when there were alive. In large part because too many folks with no insurance visited the ER and couldn't pay. Our wonderful governor refused to accept Medicaid Expansion money.
 
Nancy Hart said:
Nine rural hospitals in Georgia have closed since 2010, five just recently, including the one my parents most often used when there were alive. In large part because too many folks with no insurance visited the ER and couldn't pay. Our wonderful governor refused to accept Medicaid Expansion money.
Click to expand...

I'm from Georgia and have visited most with 60 miles of Atlanta, which one closed. I haven't lived in Georgia for 28 years now although 2 of my oldest kids live there and 9 grands, mostly north of Atlanta, oldest grandkid lives in Decatur Ala.
 
Marie Mallory said:
I'm from Georgia and have visited most with 60 miles of Atlanta, which one closed. I haven't lived in Georgia for 28 years now although 2 of my oldest kids live there and 9 grands, mostly north of Atlanta, oldest grandkid lives in Decatur Ala.
Click to expand...
Ty Cobb Memorial hospital in Royston, GA. It was severely in debt. It was demolished and assets acquired by Trinity Health, but not the debt. Trinity has a branch located in Lavonia, GA, a more urban region where more people have insurance. I guess whoever was owed were just out of luck. :confused: :unsure:

What this does is make the distances travelled increase for rural patients. My mother's doctor relabeled his practice in Royston as Urgent Care, and has expanded to two branches in Athens and Watkinsville. I guess he is making those with insurance pay for those without.

More than you wanted to know? ;) I could go on. :)
 
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Nancy Hart said:
Ty Cobb Memorial hospital in Royston, GA. It was severely in debt. It was demolished and assets acquired by Trinity Health, but not the debt. Trinity has a branch located in Lavonia, GA, a more urban region where more people have insurance. I guess whoever was owed were just out of luck. :confused: :unsure:

What this does is make the distances travelled increase for rural patents. My mother's doctor relabeled his practice in Royston as Urgent Care, and has expanded to two branches in Athens and Watkinsville. I guess he is making those with insurance pay for those without.

More than you wanted to know? ;) I could go on. :)
Click to expand...

No it's not too much, I do know the frustrations of change, especially when there are so much that is negative.
 
This is a fine howdy-do. I finally enrolled in Part D, after another 3 hours of double-checking. Did they say, "Thank you for choosing XYZ?" No! They said they will review my application and if it's approved, "Here's what to expect next." (You're welcome! See you next year.)

Now, in order to get 3 months Rx(s) at a time, I'll have to learn how to order using something like ExpressScript. {sigh}

Top it off....

I got an email from TurboTax saying their software will no longer support Windows 10. Period! I was going to order a laptop, mostly as a backup, but I don't want to do taxes on a laptop. So I'm shopping for a new pc. Mine does not even have slots to upgrade RAM for Win11, among other things. It takes me too long to make all these decisions.
 
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