WOW!! Just got my renewal package from EnvisionRxplus for my medicare drug plan and they have increased the premiums for next year by 43%!!! Will now be $100 month. That's just for prescriptions. The rest of the insurance is around the same. We are talking almost $200 a month for medicare - the add medigap and you are looking at a huge chunk of money. Too bad they don't even cover my LLMD.
Not to worry, if you don't have this plan, yours may not be so bad. I believe each company sets their own premiums.
You would think that there would be some cap on how much they can increase the premiums since this is medicare after all!!
Guess I'll be looking through all the plans this year to see if I can get a better deal.
I'd be interested to hear if anyone else's premiums are going up this much.
Terry
Posted by Lymetoo (Member # 743) on :
^^^
Posted by trueblue (Member # 7348) on :
That stinks Terry!
I hope you're able to find a cheaper one.
I can't get a part D plan or medigap because the cost would be higher than my SSDI. Just doing straight medicare and paying what I can.
Posted by Tincup (Member # 5829) on :
OUCH!!! Bite on YOU! Not good news!!! So sorry!
May I suggest?
I have been looking into the plans lately for a friend who will be 65 soon.
VERY complex stuff.. oh MY!
But.. I checked into the Wal-Mart prescription plan last month and found that for $4.00 per month.. for each prescription.. that it covers ALL of their prescriptions.
BIG WOW!
To compare...
My neighbor pays the insurance premium monthly for medicine coverage (can't get brand name without a fight too)... then they pay a co-pay for each prescription... and also an annual deductible has to be met before the insurance pays anything!!
OUCH! OUCH! OUCH!!!
Example- They just paid $356.00 for 3 months of an antibiotic .. which was their co-pay ONLY... and that was AFTER meeting their deductible for the year and paying monthly premiums all year.
OUCH!!!
Another friend just got 6 prescriptions.. for $4.00 each from the Wal-Mart Pharmacy. No monthly fee and no deductible involved. So... for less than $25.00 they got all their meds for the month.
You might want to do some figuring on this idea? Just Google.. or Yahoo if you prefer... Wal-Mart Pharmacy Prescription Plan to get a list of meds that are available for $4.00 per month. Even if one or two of your regular meds aren't covered... it still may be a better deal to pay for them with cash... and save the monthly costs you are paying to insurance??
Hope this helps!
Posted by bettyg (Member # 6147) on :
highway robbery! stick em up!!
terry, we got our new paperwork last sat; haven''t been able to figure it out yet.
i agree also to check into walmart $4 cost!!
we've had a wonderful state employee retirement/disabled polic....it's paid wonderfully but NOTHING FOR LYME BILLS...
covers lyme RX meds...
Posted by TerryK (Member # 8552) on :
true - that's awful!! You can get Part D without getting Medigap. I paid $17.50 per month for the plan that I had the first year. It helped with prescriptions but then my prescription bills were not super high like they are now with lyme treatment.
TC - that's so great that you were able to help them through the wal-mart program.
One must choose the plan based on exactly which prescriptions you are taking. It's almost impossible for those of us in the early years of lyme treatment to know which drugs we will be taking 6 months from now.
It is very complicated as you note TC. I had to set up a database just to keep track of the various prescriptions and companies so that I could figure out which plan would be the best for me. Even then, I had to guess at which prescriptions I might be taking.
TC - Thanks for posting about wal-mart. I did look at the wal-mart options last year but they only covered one of my prescriptions and it would not have been in my best interest to use it. Here is the info for anyone who can use it:
For example, you can get 5 days worth of doxy per month for $4 if you take 400 mg per day.
At Costco, you can get 30 days of 400 mg doxy if you pay cash for around $15 last time I checked.
My bill this year so far for prescriptions, premiums for prescriptions, deductibles and co-pays is well over $5,000. That's only for prescriptions - does not include costs for regular insurance or medigap etc..
Keep in mind that a fair amount of that expense is due to the cost of mepron which is $750 for 21 days. If I didn't have the insurance, I'd be looking at 3-4 X's that in costs, just for prescriptions.
bettyg, I hope your insurance plan isn't as difficult to figure out as the new prescription plans that the disabled and senior citizens have had to deal with. I'm so glad your prescriptions are covered.
It really pays to check each year at all the plans that are available through medicare for prescritpions but it is very time consuming so plan to spend some time on it.
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