The gap in the closing of Medicare's drug "doughnut hole"

[TomCADem]

Source: Washington Post

Six years after Congress added a prescription drug benefit to Medicare, Democrats in the House and Senate are poised to make a central change that they and most older Americans have wanted all along: getting rid of a quirk that forces millions of elderly patients with especially high expenses for medicine to pay for much of it on their own.

The closing of an unusual gap in Medicare drug coverage -- a gap that Republicans had, when they controlled Capitol Hill and the White House, insisted was needed for the government to be able to afford the program -- would "forever end this indefensible injustice for American's seniors," Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said in announcing that the Senate would join the House in supporting the change.

* * *
Under the health-care bill the House passed in November, people who reach the hole would be $500 better off next year than they would otherwise. But the impact over the next few years would be subtler than it appears at first for two reasons: The gap -- without any change -- is scheduled to expand each year, and the bill would fill it gradually. As a result, patients would face a larger coverage hole in 2011 and 2012 than this year, according to Ways and Means Committee data. After that, it would shrink more rapidly and disappear in 2019.

The just-passed Senate measure would narrow the gap halfway. Even before the bill was approved, Reid and the chairman of the two Senate committees that handle health-care issues said they would, as part of negotiations to resolve differences between the two bills, accept the House's goal of closing the hole completely.


Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/27/AR2009122701206.html?hpid=topnews

[katkat]

1. what?

So, I read this and the linked to article, and I still have no clue as to what it means, like the gap widening? By how much? Could the reporter have, like, included any numbers?

I especially liked this part, though: "the CBO provided a clue: It said that, if the gap were eliminated right away, it would cost $134 billion over 10 years."

That's $13 billion a year, or about 2% of what the government is pissing away on wars each year.

[katkat]

2. and

So I find this chart. Basically zilch help for years:

[DURHAM D]

3. I'm with you - very confusing.

The "gap" is paid out of pocket by individuals - not the government.
What am I missing?

[Downwinder]

4. Did they get AARP's approval on that. After all AARP approved the doughnut hole. n/t

[katkat]

7. downwinder - AARP

AARP went with the donut hole because it was the only way they could get any prescription coverage passed.

[frazzled]

5. Congress can keep amending the gap coverage as it rises

Congress does this all the time with things like Alternative Minimum Tax, so it doesn't creep up to affect the middle class.

So don't get your panties all in a twist about it. It's an improvement on no closure of the gap ...

[katkat]

6. fraz

The gap costs me $6000 a year. I would say it's crept up and crunched over. According to HuffPost, there are 3 million of us in there. And I just take two common medicines.

Didn't I hear that about Congress can amend stuff, don't worry about what they pass now, about something else...