Reply #15: You're correct, some plans have no deductible. [View All]

[godai]

I learned this from an article in the WP yesterday. Monthly premiums vary widely. It will probably be the plans with high monthly fees that have no deductible.

"The typical beneficiary nationally will pay $32.20 a month for Part D coverage, according to Medicare officials. In the District and Maryland, PDP premiums range from $6.44 to $68.98; the average is $33.63. In Virginia, premiums range from $8.81 to $68.61, with an average of $34.19."

Actually, 1 plan has no monthly premium, Humana Gold Choice, but I'm sure coverage is limited in some way.

So, there are no standards to simplify this. It seems every insurer has the option to tweak the plan as they see fit.

From today's WP:

"Betty Sicher, 71, a nurse from Spring Valley, N.Y., has already made her choice. She will skip the Medicare benefit and keep paying $150 a month to buy her drugs from Canada, she said.

"I'm truly not so sure that this plan is really going to work for me," she said. "There's no control over the prices of the drugs, so if the drug prices go up, my premiums are going to go up. I'm locked into an insurance company for a year. If they change their formulary and I can't get the drug through them, I have to go elsewhere to get it. . . . I decided it just wasn't worth it.""

Possible useful site: http://www.benefitscheckup.org/